OCD and Intolerance of Uncertainty: Treatment Issues

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan B. Grayson

Recognition of the importance of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) as a critical cognitive distortion in anxiety disorders has been growing. The clinical challenge for researchers and clinicians is to understand the nature of IU and what it means to help clients to cope with it. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is the ideal diagnosis to examine the challenges IU can present, since, in the author’s opinion, it is the core of almost all manifestations of OCD. The article then focuses upon three factors in which IU factors play a role in successful/unsuccessful treatment: (a) the role of the therapist in helping the sufferer to understand IU and the goals of treatment; (b) techniques for helping the sufferer to accept and carry out the goals of treatment; and (c) patient factors/problems leading to “resistance” in coping with IU.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan W Kanen ◽  
Frederique E Arntz ◽  
Robyn Yellowlees ◽  
David M Christmas ◽  
Annabel Price ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundResponding emotionally to danger is critical for survival. Normal functioning also requires flexible alteration of emotional responses when a threat becomes safe. Aberrant threat and safety learning occurs in many psychiatric disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and schizophrenia, where emotional responses can persist pathologically. Whilst there is evidence that threat and safety learning can be modulated by the serotonin systems, there have been few studies in humans. We addressed a critical clinically relevant question: How does pharmacological lowering of serotonin affect the retention of conditioned threat memory?MethodsForty-seven healthy participants underwent threat conditioning on Day 1 followed by an extinction session. Emotional responding was assessed by the skin conductance response (SCR). On Day 2, we employed acute dietary tryptophan depletion to lower serotonin temporarily, in a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized between-groups design. We then tested for the return of conditioned threat memory spontaneous recovery). We also measured self-reported intolerance of uncertainty, known to modulate threat memory expression.ResultsThe expression of emotional memory was attenuated in participants who had undergone tryptophan depletion. Individuals who were more intolerant of uncertainty showed even greater attenuation of emotion following depletion.ConclusionsThese results support the view that serotonin is involved in predicting aversive outcomes and refine our understanding of the role of serotonin in the persistence of emotional responsivity, with implications for individual differences in vulnerability to psychopathology.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Scelles ◽  
LUIS CARLO BULNES

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment for post-traumatic stressdisorder (PTSD). The technique is known to stimulate the capacity to reprocess maladaptive memoriesthat are thought to be central to this pathology. Here we investigate if EMDR therapy can be used in otherconditions than PTSD. We conducted a systematic literature search on PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science. Wesearched for published empirical findings on EMDR, excluding those centred on trauma and PTSD,published up to 2020. The results were classified by psychiatric categories.   Ninety articles met our research criteria. A positive effect was reported in addictions, somatoformdisorders, sexual dysfunction, eating disorder, disorders of adult personality, mood disorders, reaction tosevere stress, anxiety disorders, performance anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), pain,neurodegenerative disorders, paedopsychiatry and sleep. The evidence was more consistent in pain, OCD,mood disorders, and reaction to severe stress.EMDR’s efficiency across numerous pathological situations, highlighted the central role of affectivememory in several psychiatric and non-psychiatric conditions. Furthermore, EMDR seems to besuccessful in usually uncooperative (e.g. Dementia) or unproductive cases (e.g. aphasia). Moreover, insome severe medical situations were psychologic distress was an obstacle, EMDR allowed thecontinuation of treatment-as-usual. Our review suggests that it is a safe and economical therapeuticoption, and its effect in non-pathological situations opens new avenues for translational research. Overallmore methodologically rigorous studies are needed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Karolina Diallo

Pupil with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Over the past twenty years childhood OCD has received more attention than any other anxiety disorder that occurs in the childhood. The increasing interest and research in this area have led to increasing number of diagnoses of OCD in children and adolescents, which affects both specialists and teachers. Depending on the severity of symptoms OCD has a detrimental effect upon child's school performance, which can lead almost to the impossibility to concentrate on school and associated duties. This article is devoted to the obsessive-compulsive disorder and its specifics in children, focusing on the impact of this disorder on behaviour, experience and performance of the child in the school environment. It mentions how important is the role of the teacher in whose class the pupil with this diagnosis is and it points out that it is necessary to increase teachers' competence to identify children with OCD symptoms, to take the disease into the account, to adapt the course of teaching and to introduce such measures that could help children reduce the anxiety and maintain (or increase) the school performance within and in accordance with the school regulations and curriculum.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (S4) ◽  
pp. 4-4
Author(s):  
Eric Hollander ◽  
Joseph Zohar ◽  
Donatella Marazziti

The Fourth International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Conference (IOCDC) was held February 10–12, 2000, on the beautiful island of St. Thomas. The IOCDC is an annual meeting which brings together the world's leading experts in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders in a small workshop setting to present recent research advances, discuss gaps in our current knowledge, and plan or international approaches that address these knowledge gaps. The IOCDC meetings have been held on islands on both sides of the Atlantic—Capri, Guadeloupe, Madeira, and now St. Thomas.The International Organizing Committee consists of Eric Hollander, MD (USA), Joseph Zohar, MD (Israel), and Donatella Marazziti, MD (Italy). The proceedings are generously supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Solvay Pharmaceuticals, and we would like to acknowledge the very important contributions of Chantal Vekens and Mary Blangiardo of Solvay. Also, an mportant part of the success of these meetings stems from the very active role of the chairpersons and cochairpersons of the workshops who lead the discussions, who synthesize the future directions and prepare the manuscripts that result from these discussions that appear in this academic supplement.The meeting led off with a state-of-the-art plenary address by Mark George, MD (USA), describing how new methods of brain stimulation are improving research and therapy in OCD and promise to revolutionize neuropsychiatric research and herapy over the next decade. He describes how transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is used to test the circuits in OCD and test electrophysiologic evaluations of cortical inhibition n OCD. Newer techniques that are less invasive than ablative surgery and appear promising in OCD therapy include vagus nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation.


Retos ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
Angeles Filgueira Perez

En el presente estudio se ha tratado de obtener una aproximación al perfil ideal del entrenador de alto rendimiento en atletismo. En el mundo del deporte de alta competición, el entrenador debe desarrollar funciones de maestro, técnico y líder, lo cual hace difícil delimitar sus competencias (conocimientos, habilidades y cualidades personales). Por tanto, la principal motivación de este trabajo es establecer el papel que debe desempeñar el entrenador para la preparación física, técnica, táctica, psicológica y moral del deportista de alto nivel. Para ello, se ha considerado como población objeto de estudio al conjunto de entrenadores de alto rendimiento que en el momento de la investigación estuviesen activo, ya que interesaba realizar este estudio desde su propia perspectiva. Los datos recogidos forman parte de una investigación más amplia, llevada a cabo mediante encuesta, para la que se diseñó un cuestionario de 78 preguntas en el que se abarcaban tres temas: el perfil del entrenador y del deportista, así como la figura del formador de entrenadores en el Practicum. En este trabajo nos centramos en el primer tema y el análisis de la información obtenida nos permite concluir que la que práctica totalidad de los entrenadores de atletismo consideran necesario dominar con precisión los aspectos técnico-metodológicos. Además, consideran que su ética profesional debe estar regida por los principios de autonomía y beneficencia, de modo que valores como la honestidad y la justicia deben primar en el desarrollo de sus funciones.Abstract: In the current study, we have tried to get an approximation of the ideal profile of high performance coaches in athletics. In the high-level sports world, the coach must develop the role of teacher, technician and leader,  which makes it difficult to delimit  his/her competencies (knowledge, skills and personal qualities). Therefore, the main motivation of this work is to define the role that the coach plays in relation  to the physical, technical, tactical, psychological and moral preparation of elite athletes. Keeping this aim as an objective, we have considered as the target population the high performance coaches who are active at the time of the investigation, since we were interested  in knowing their own perspective. The data that was collected is a part of a wider investigation, conducted by a survey, for which we designed a questionnaire of 78 questions divided on three topics: the profile of the coach and the athlete, as well as the figure of the coach educator in the Practicum. In this work, we focus on the first topic and the analysis of the information that we obtained allows us to conclude that almost all the track and field coaches find it necessary to dominate the technical and methodological aspects. They also consider that professional ethics must be governed by the principles of autonomy and care that values   like honesty and justice must prevail in the performance of their work.


Author(s):  
Esmaeil Sadri Damirchi ◽  
Arezoo Mojarrad ◽  
Saeed Pireinaladin ◽  
Andrej M M Grjibovski

Objective: Nowadays, the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is one of the most stressful resources that has led to the rise of different levels of psychological crisis. In addition to the countries affected by the COVID-19, such as China, European and American countries, Iran has appeared as one of the most affected countries with high infected cases and deaths. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of self-talk in predicting death anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and coping strategies in the face of COVID-19. Method: This descriptive and correlational study was conducted on 354 adults living in Ardabil, Iran, who were selected using cluster sampling from 21 January to 19 March 2020. Self-Talk questionnaires, Coping Strategies, Death Anxiety, and Obsessive-Compulsive questionnaires were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression were used for data analysis. Results: The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between self-talk and problem-centered coping style. Also, significant negative relationships were found between self-talk and emotional coping style, death anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Furthermore, based on the results of the regression test, self-talk predicted problem-centered style, emotional-coping style, death anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Conclusion: The results of this study emphasize the need for psychological crisis intervention during the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, this study provides an important step in shifting attention to self-talk skills from sport psychology fields toward clinical psychology, especially about the mental impacts of COVID-19.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document