The experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms that have a religious theme is common. Recent research has found that religious participants with religious OCD symptoms frequently turn to religious advisors, such as imams or clergy, for help to understand and alleviate their symptoms. As such, the advice provided by imams or clergy may have an important impact on the response of the person seeking help. This study examined the attitudes, beliefs and experiences of 64 Muslim imams with mosque-goers who had religious OCD symptoms, particularly scrupulosity. This study also examined imams’ familiarity with first-line psychological treatments for OCD such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Sunni imams from Australia and Shia imams from Iran completed an online survey based on the research of Deacon, Vincent, and Zhang (2012), which was conducted with Christian clergy in the United States. Results showed that the majority of imams were unfamiliar with scrupulosity as a possible symptom of a mental health problem, such as OCD, and with ERP as a recognised treatment for OCD. While 37% of participants reported having been approached by mosque-goers for help with scrupulosity, only 9% referred mosque-goers to mental health professionals, and only one imam reported having referred a mosque-goer for ERP. Sunni imams located in Australia were more likely to provide advice inconsistent with the ERP approach and were also significantly less likely than Shia imams located in Iran to recommend referral to a mental health professional who was not affiliated with their own religious denomination. Finally, Sunni imams had significantly higher scores than Shia imams on Thought Action Fusion (TAF) subscales. Results of multiple regression analysis revealed that TAF explained a considerable amount of the variance related to ERP-inconsistent advice. Research implications and limitations are discussed.

中文翻译：

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伊玛目与强迫症患者的经历和对清真寺观众的反应

具有宗教主题的强迫症 (OCD) 症状的经历很常见。最近的研究发现，有宗教强迫症症状的宗教参与者经常求助于宗教顾问，如伊玛目或神职人员，以帮助理解和缓解他们的症状。因此，伊玛目或神职人员提供的建议可能会对寻求帮助的人的反应产生重要影响。这项研究调查了 64 名穆斯林阿訇的态度、信仰和经历，他们有宗教强迫症症状，尤其是谨慎的清真寺观众。本研究还考察了伊玛目对 OCD 一线心理治疗的熟悉程度，例如暴露和反应预防 (ERP)。来自澳大利亚的逊尼派伊玛目和来自伊朗的什叶派伊玛目根据 Deacon、Vincent 和 Zhang (2012) 的研究完成了一项在线调查，这是由美国的基督教神职人员进行的。结果表明，大多数伊玛目不熟悉作为强迫症等心理健康问题的可能症状的谨慎，也不熟悉 ERP 作为强迫症的公认治疗方法。虽然 37% 的参与者报告说，清真寺观众曾因谨慎而与他们联系，但只有 9% 的参与者将清真寺观众转介给心理健康专业人员，只有一名伊玛目报告称曾将清真寺观众推荐给 ERP。位于澳大利亚的逊尼派阿訇更有可能提供与 ERP 方法不一致的建议，并且与位于伊朗的什叶派阿訇相比，他们推荐转诊给与自己的宗教派别无关的心理健康专业人员的可能性也明显降低。最后，逊尼派伊玛目在思想行动融合 (TAF) 分量表上的得分明显高于什叶派伊玛目。多元回归分析的结果显示，TAF 解释了与 ERP 不一致建议相关的大量差异。讨论了研究意义和局限性。