This is an abstract of a report from the National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc.® (NORD). CIGNA members can access the complete report by logging into myCIGNA.com. For non-CIGNA members, a copy of the complete report can be obtained for a small fee by visiting the NORD website. The complete report contains additional information including symptoms, causes, affected population, related disorders, standard and investigational treatments (if available), and references from medical literature. For a full-text version of this topic, see http://www.rarediseases.org/search/rdblist.html.
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy is an effective way to
treat
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). With exposure and
response prevention therapy, you repeatedly expose yourself to an obsession,
such as something you fear is contaminated, and deny yourself the ritual
compulsive act, which in this case would be washing your hands.
ERP helps break the link between your obsessive thoughts and
compulsive rituals. This process is repeated every day for several weeks or
months until your anxiety is reduced and you do not feel the need to
perform the compulsive behavior in response to the obsessive thought.1
Jacob RG, Pelham WE (2005). Behavior therapy section of Psychotherapies. In BJ Sadock, VA Sadock, eds., Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 8th ed., vol. 2, pp. 2498–2548. Philadelphia: Lippincott
Williams and Wilkins.
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