Does Exposure and Response Prevention Behaviorally Activate Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? A Preliminary Test.

Does Exposure and Response Prevention Behaviorally Activate Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? A Preliminary Test. Behav Ther. 2019 Jan;50(1):214-224 Authors: Blakey SM, Abramowitz JS, Leonard RC, Riemann BC Abstract Exposure and response prevention (ERP) and behavioral activation (BA) are effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression, respectively. Patients with OCD often exhibit depression; furthermore, ERP for OCD is associated with reduced depressive symptoms. To our knowledge, no study has examined whether ERP itself functions to behaviorally activate patients with concurrent OCD and depressive symptoms. This prospective study was designed to test the hypotheses that (a) OCD exposure hierarchy completion, increased BA, and depressive symptom reduction would all be related, and (b) pre- to posttreatment changes in BA would mediate the direct effect of OCD hierarchy completion on posttreatment depressive symptoms, even after controlling for pretreatment depressive symptoms, pretreatment BA, pre- to posttreatment reductions in OCD symptoms, treatment duration, and antidepressant medication use. Patients (N = 90) with a primary diagnosis of OCD who received residential ERP for OCD completed a self-report battery at pre- and posttreatment. Exposure hierarchy completion, increases in BA, and decreases in depression were all significantly correlated (rs ranged .33 to .44). The effect of hierarchy...
Source: Behavior Therapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Behav Ther Source Type: research