Background <p>This study examined the relationship between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptom severity and psychological resilience within the framework of dominant depressive temperament (DDT).</p> Methods <p>A total of 129 patients with OCD were assessed using the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), and the TEMPS-A questionnaire for temperament evaluation. Participants were classified as having DDT based on both established cut-off scores and standardized z-scores for the depressive subscale. Depression and anxiety levels were measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI).</p> Results <p>Patients with DDT showed significantly higher depression, anxiety, and obsession scores than those without DDT. They also displayed significantly lower scores in most RSA subdimensions (perception of future, structured style, social competence, family cohesion, and social resources), while perception of self did not differ. Interestingly, some resilience subdimensions such as structured style were relatively higher in the DDT group despite greater symptom severity, indicating a paradoxical pattern. Partial correlation analyses controlling for depressive symptoms revealed that, in the DDT group, higher OCD symptom severity was inversely associated with several resilience resources—particularly family cohesion.</p> Conclusions <p>The presence of DDT is linked to greater emotional vulnerability and reduced resilience resources, which may exacerbate OCD severity. These findings indicate that the interplay between affective temperament and resilience in OCD remains significant even after accounting for depressive symptoms, underscoring the importance of incorporating temperament profiling and resilience assessment into clinical evaluation. Interventions that target resilience may be particularly beneficial for OCD patients with DDT.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>