Perfectionism in Anxiety and Depression: Comparisons across Disorders, Relations with Symptom Severity, and Role of Comorbidity

We investigated perfectionism in clinical samples using new measures of maladaptive cognitive-personality dimensions—the Evaluative Concerns Perfectionism Scale (ECPS) and Self-Critical Perfectionism Scale (SCPS), as well as the Frost (FMPS) and the Hewitt and Flett (HMPS) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scales. Outpatients (N = 190) with a principal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (PDA), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or predominantly major depressive disorder were compared to non-psychiatric controls. Patients with depression and SAD had similar or significantly higher scores than the controls, and patients with PDA and/or OCD on many perfectionism measures. OCD patients were also higher than controls and those with PDA on many scales. PDA patients were similar to controls on all but a few measures. The SCPS was the only consistent unique positive predictor of variance on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) in a combined patient group.