Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD
A therapist-guided cognitive behavioral treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder that repeatedly exposes a person to feared thoughts, images, or situations while preventing the usual compulsion or ritual. The protocol often starts with identifying the core fear behind the obsession and then gradually confronting triggers, sometimes with a replacement behavior to help ride out the urge. Over time, this reduces anxiety and compulsive responding so the person can function more normally.
“And this is a whole field. And there's a whole clinic at my institution focused, it was started by Edna Foa at Penn, who this is what they do for these patients, is offer these types of cognitive therapies, exposure to the stressor, and to try to get patients to habituate to whatever it is that stresses them and causes these compulsions, to help these patients live in every day and function.”