letter to the editor: covid-19 pandemic and the questionable validity of obsessive-compulsive questionnaires

The covid-19 pandemic has impacted all aspects of our lives and even the scientific fields. most of the covid-19 preventative strategies, such as basic hygiene, are similar to concerns of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, especially those with contamination fears. the obsessive-compulsive (oc) questionnaires typically have several items about basic hygiene. the contamination/cleaning/washing subscales of all well-known oc questionnaires were inspected in terms of their similarity to the covid-19 preventative strategies. in this paper, i discussed the way this similarity may threaten the validity of oc questionnaires along with the potential solutions.