Increasing Willingness to Experience Obsessions: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

doi:10.1016/j.beth.2005.02.001

Behavior Therapy

Volume 37, Issue 1, March 2006, Pages 3-13

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2005.02.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an 8-session Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for OCD intervention in a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline, across-participants design. Results on self-reported compulsions showed that the intervention produced clinically significant reductions in compulsions by the end of treatment for all participants, with results maintained at 3-month follow-up. Self-monitoring was supported with similar decreases in scores on standardized measures of OCD. Positive changes in anxiety and depression were found for all participants as well as expected process changes in the form of decreased experiential avoidance, believability of obsessions, and need to respond to obsessions. All participants found the treatment to be highly acceptable. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were recruited in three fashions: through postings on the local university campus, orally in undergraduate psychology classes, and through advertisements in the local newspaper. All three recruitment procedures were brief and instructed interested participants to contact the first author for a more detailed description of the study. In total, five individuals responded and scheduled pretreatment sessions. One individual, for unknown reasons, never attended the pretreatment

Compulsion frequency

Self-monitoring data for all participants on the primary measure are presented in Figure 1. None of the participants showed decreases in self-reported compulsions during a 1- to 7-week baseline. All showed very large reductions during treatment and retention of most or all of the gains during follow-up. Data were collected throughout, but posttreatment is considered data collected after the eighth (i.e., the final) session.

Discussion

This study demonstrated the effectiveness of an eight-session ACT for OCD intervention (without in-session exposure) in a nonconcurrent, multiple-baseline, across-participants design, where the main dependent measure was self-reported compulsion frequency. Decreases in self-reported compulsions in the present study were large and well-maintained over the 3-month follow-up, despite the relatively brief intervention. The responses were similar regardless of the specific type of compulsion,

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²: A copy of the complete treatment manual is available from the first author, Michael Twohig and is posted on the ACT Web site: www.acceptanceandcommitmenttheraphy.com

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Increasing Willingness to Experience Obsessions: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Compulsion frequency

Discussion

Biological Psychiatry

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

Behavior Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behavioural Research and Therapy

Behavioural Research and Therapy

Psychiatric Clinics of North America

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behavior Therapy

Effectiveness of psychological and pharmacological treatments of obsessive-compulsive disorder: A quantitative review

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders

The use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to prevent the rehospitalization of psychotic patients: A randomized controlled trial

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Beck depression inventory

An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Mediators of change in emotion-focused and problem-focused worksite stress management interventions

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Cognitive behavioral therapy for OCD

A randomized controlled trial of cognitive therapy versus intensive behavior therapy in obsessive compulsive disorder

Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics

Acceptance and commitment therapy for anxiety disorders

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Psychosocial treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder: Literature review