Abstract
Historically, treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has focused on anxiety regarding the potential of something bad happening. Therefore, cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT) for OCD have emphasized altering the perceived connection between intrusions and performing a compulsion aimed at preventing the negative outcome and reducing anxiety. However, there is increasing recognition that some OCD symptoms are not related to anxiety regarding negative outcomes, but are motivated by a desire to reduce a sensation that things are incomplete or not just right. Thischapter presents the case of a 9-year-old girl with OCD related to both harm avoidance and not-just-right experiences (NJREs). Discussion of her NJRE-related symptoms is emphasized. Initial experiences suggest that patients with NJRE-related symptoms can benefit from CBT when the NJREs are recognized and incorporated into the case conceptualization and treatment.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington: American Psychiatric Association.
Beidel, D. C. & Turner, S. M. (1997). At risk for anxiety: I. Psychopathology in the offspring of anxious parents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 918–924.
Coles, M. E., Frost, R. O., Heimberg, R. G., & Rhéaume, J. (2003). “Not just right experiences”: Perfectionism, obsessive-compulsive features and general psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 681–700.
Cougle, J. R., Fitch, K. E., Jacobson, S., & Lee, H. (2013). A multi-method examination of the role of incompleteness in compulsive checking. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27, 231–239.
Diniz, J. B., Rosario-Campos, M. C., Hounie, A. G., Curi, M., Shavitt, R. G., Lopes, A. C., & Miguel, E. C. (2006). Chronic tics and tourette syndrome in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 40, 487–493.
Ecker, W., & Gönner, S. (2008). Incompleteness and harm avoidance in OCD symptom dimensions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 895–904.
Evans, D. W., Leckman, J. F., Carter, A., Reznick, J. S., Henshaw, D., King, R. A., & Pauls, D. (1997). Ritual, habit, and perfectionism: The prevalence and development of compulsive-like behavior in normal young children. Child Development, 68, 58–68.
Ferrão, Y. A., Shavitt, R. G., Prado, H., Fontenelle, L. F., Malavazzi, D. M., de Mathis, M. A., et al. (2012). Sensory phenomena associated with repetitive behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder: An exploratory study of 1001 patients. Psychiatry Research, 197, 253–258.
Foa, E. B. & Kozak, M. J. (1995). DSM-IV field trial: Obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 90–96.
Foa, E. B., Abramowitz, J., et al. (1999). Feared consequences, fixity of belief, and treatment outcome in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behavior Therapy, 30, 717–724.
Foa, E. B., Liebowitz, M. R., Kozak, M. J., Davies, S., Campeas, R., Franklin, M. E., et al. (2005). Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of exposure and ritual prevention, clomipramine, and their combination in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 151–161.
Foa, E. B., Coles, M. E., Huppert, J. D., Pasupuleti, R. V., Franklin, M. E., & March, J. (2010). Development and validation of a child version of the obsessive compulsive inventory. Behavior Therapy, 41, 121–132.
Ghisi, M., Chiri, L. R., Marchetti, I., Sanavio, E., & Sica, C. (2010). In search of specificity: “Not just right experiences” and obsessive–compulsive symptoms in non-clinical and clinical Italian individuals. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 879–886.
Hanna, G. L., Himle, J. A., Curtis, G. C., & Gillespie, B. W. (2005). A family study of obsessive-compulsive disorder with pediatric probands. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 134B, 13–19.
Hazen, E., Reichert, E., Piacentini, J., Miguel, E. C., Do Rosario, M. C., Pauls, D., & Geller, D. (2008). Case series: Sensory intolerance as a primary symptom of pediatric OCD. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 20, 199–203.
Krug, E. G., et al. (2002). The world report on violence and health. The lancet360.9339, 1083–1088.
Leckman, J. F., Denys, D., Simpson, H. B., Mataix-Cols, D., Hollander, E., Saxena, S, et al. (2010). Obsessive–compulsive disorder: A review of the diagnostic criteria and possible subtypes and dimensional specifiers for DSM-V. Depression and Anxiety, 27, 507–527.
March, J. S. & Mulle, K. (1998). OCD in children and adolescents: A cognitive-behavioral treatment manual. New York: Guilford.
Moretz, M. W., & McKay, D. (2009). The role of perfectionism in obsessive–compulsive symptoms: “Not just right” experiences and checking compulsions. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 640–644.
Olatunji, B. O., Tart, C. D., Ciesielski, B. G., McGrath, P. B., & Smits, J. A. (2011). Specificity of disgust vulnerability in the distinction and treatment of OCD. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 45, 1236–1242.
Ravid, A., Franklin, M. E., Khanna, M., Storch, E. A., & Coles, M. E. (2014). “Not just right experiences” in adolescents: Phenomenology and associated characteristics. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 45, 193–200.
Rosario, M. C., Prado, H. S., Borcato, S., Diniz, J. B., Shavitt, R. G., Hounie, A. G., et al. (2009). Validation of the University of São Paulo Sensory Phenomena Scale: Initial psychometric properties. CNS Spectrums, 14, 315–323.
Salkovskis, P., Shafran, R., Rachman, S., & Freeston, M. H. (1999). Multiple pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs in obsessional problems: Possible origins and implications for therapy and research. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 1055–1072.
Salkovskis, P. M., Wroe, A. L., Gledhill, A., Morrison, N., Forrester, E., Richards, C., et al. (2000). Responsibility attitudes and interpretations are characteristic of obsessive compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 347–372.
Summerfeldt, L. J. (2004). Understanding and treating incompleteness in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 60, 1155–1168.
Summerfeldt, L. J. (2007). Treating incompleteness, ordering, and arranging concerns. In Antony, M., Purdon, C., & Summerfeldt, L. (Eds.), Psychological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Fundamentals and beyond (pp. 187–207). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Summers, B. J., Fitch, K. E., & Cougle, J. R. (2014). Visual, tactile, and auditory ‘Not just right’ experiences: Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and perfectionism. Behavior Therapy, 45(5), 678–689.
Wahl, K., Salkovskis, P. M., & Cotter, I. (2008). ‘I wash until it feels right’: The phenomenology of stopping criteria in Associations with obsessive–compulsive washing. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22, 143–161.
Woods, D. W., Piacentini, J., Himle, M. B., & Chang, S. (2005). Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS): Initial psychometric results and examination of the premonitory urge phenomenon in youths with tic disorders. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 26(2), 397–403.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schubert, J., Ravid, A., Coles, M. (2016). Treatment of “Not-Just-Right Experiences” in Childhood Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In: Storch, E., Lewin, A. (eds) Clinical Handbook of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17139-5_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17139-5_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17138-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17139-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)