Background Anhedonia, the diminished capacity to experience pleasure, is a transdiagnostic symptom increasingly studied in various psychiatric conditions. While recognized in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), its unique relationship with OCD severity, independent of comorbid depression, remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of anhedonia in individuals with OCD, its association with OCD symptom severity, and whether this association persists after controlling for depressive symptoms.

Methods 227 adult participants with a primary or co-primary OCD diagnosis completed self-report measures for anhedonia, OCD severity, and depressive symptoms. Hypothesis-driven and exploratory analyses included descriptive statistics, hierarchical multiple linear regression, and group comparisons.

Results Clinically significant anhedonia was found in 14.5% of the sample, though mean anhedonia levels were generally low (M = 0.96, SD = 1.79). A significant positive correlation was initially observed between anhedonia and OCD severity (r = .148, p = .027). However, in a hierarchical regression model, while depressive symptoms significantly predicted OCD severity (β = 0.602, p < .001), anhedonia did not explain unique variance (ΔR² < .001, p = .931) after controlling for depression.

Conclusions General anhedonia is present in a subset of individuals with OCD and shows an initial correlation with OCD severity. However, this relationship appears to be largely accounted for by comorbid depressive symptoms. These findings underscore the critical importance of controlling for depression when researching OCD, as well as targeting depression when delivering evidence-based interventions for OCD.

In the past three years, BZ has consulted with Biohaven Pharmaceuticals and received royalties from Oxford University Press; these relationships are not related to the work described here.

This study did not receive any funding.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Ethics committee of Yale University gave ethical approval for this work.

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I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.