Deterioration of mood and elevation of anxiety in compulsive ritualising

To account for the so called anxiety elevating compulsions and Beech's contention that mood deteriorates through ritualising, two hypotheses were formulated and tested. In line with our expectation, the data suggested that compulsions may (i) not only serve to reduce actual anxiety, but may also prevent anxiety that patients believe to occur in case of not ritualising and that (ii) compulsive patients are most troubled by negative self statements immediately after ritualising and least so in case of not ritualising. It is argued that these findings do not contradict the anxiety reduction model.