Understanding and treating incompleteness in obsessive-compulsive disorder

✍ Scribed by Laura J. Summerfeldt

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 98 KB
• Volume: 60
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/jclp.20080

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Incompleteness—the troubling and irremediable sense that one's actions or experiences are not “just right”—appears to underlie many of the symptoms of obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). Because incompleteness may reflect basic sensory‐affective dysfunction, it presents a challenge to clinicians wishing to apply cognitive‐behavioral treatments. In this article, I review ways of adapting well‐demonstrated treatment principles to this condition. A case is presented and then used to discuss challenges in conducting cognitive‐behavioral therapy with this population. Behavioral methods aimed at habituation (e.g., exposure and ritual prevention [ERP]) are probably more applicable than conventional cognitive techniques. However, even these may result in modest long‐term gains; relapse is a probability if they are not actively practiced after treatment cessation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol/In Session.