Building tolerance to anxiety is key to OCD symptom relief

Excessive hand washing, out of a fear of contamination or germs, is one of the most common and best-known examples of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. Though OCD can ’t be “cured,” symptoms can be significantly reduced through cognitive-behavioral therapy, a type of psychotherapy.Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, can be challenging for some people with OCD. Therapists may expose them to experiences that require them to directly confront their fears by performing tasks that cause anxiety or even disgust. For example, one effective treatment for excessive fears of contamination might involve putting your hands on the floor of a public restroom.“We want you to learn that you’re able to tolerate it,” said Dr. Jamie Feusner, a clinical neuroscientist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. “We first brainstorm situations that evoke anxiety, and rank them. We might say, ‘Let’s start with touching a wall in a public hallway.’”Feusner and Nicco Reggente, a UCLA Ph.D. candidate, recentlypublished a study showing that by feeding brain imaging data into an artificial intelligence algorithm, they could predict which people with OCD might benefit most from cognitive-behavioral therapy. One aim of the study was to figure out who could be spared the expense — and stress — of therapy that was unlikely to work for them.UCLADr. Jamie Feusner“Exposure and response prevention” is the name for the technique used in cognitive-beha...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news