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Original Article

Dissociating Pathological Buying From Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms Using Delay Discounting

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000308

Abstract. Pathological buying (PB) has been associated with elevated impulsivity in personality inventories, yet limited research has considered components of behavioral impulsivity. This study examined the relationship between discounting of delayed rewards, symptoms of PB, comorbid disorders (including obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD), and trait impulsivity. One hundred three participants completed two delay discounting tasks (DDT). In addition to the traditional DDT, a loan variant assessing the preference to receive a certain amount of money immediately when a fixed amount has to be returned after a certain delay was included in this study. Regression analysis revealed that PB symptoms predicted steeper discounting functions in both variants of the DDT over and above the remaining symptom measures and trait impulsivity. In contrast, symptoms of OCD were associated with less delay discounting. With regard to delay discounting, PB seems to be more similar to behavioral addictions than to OCD.

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