Repeatedly watching a video of themselves touching a filthy bedpan reduced people ’s OCD symptoms

Another version of this new video-based smartphone intervention involved participants watching their own earlier hand washing By Emma Young Almost half of people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) have extreme fears about touching something they feel is “contaminated”. This can mean that after touching a doorknob, say, they then feel compelled to scrub their hands, in some cases even until they bleed. Conventional treatments, which often involve a combination of a prescription drug (typically an “SSRI”, such as Prozac) plus cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), help only about 60 per cent of people with OCD, so there’s an urgent need for additional treatments. Now in a new paper published in Scientific Reports, Baland Jalal at the University of Cambridge and colleagues present initial data suggesting that a simple video intervention, delivered via a phone app, might help.  For this exploratory study, the researchers recruited 93 people from the local community with higher than average fears about contamination but without a diagnosis of OCD. The researchers made this recruitment decision in case their experimental treatment inadvertently worsened their participants’ symptoms, which would likely have been more serious for people with full OCD. But thankfully, as hoped, their intervention was helpful – after just a week, participants in the two intervention groups showed significant improvements, whereas members of the control group did not.  The ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Mental health Source Type: blogs