- Basic premise: As individuals confront their fears and discontinue their escape response, they will eventually reduce their anxiety.
- Essence of therapy: Individuals with OCD repeatedly confront the thoughts, images, objects, and situations that make them anxious and/or start their obsessions in a systematic fashion, without performing compulsive behaviors that typically serve to reduce anxiety. Through this process, the individual learns that there is nothing to fear and the obsessions no longer cause distress.
- Length: approximately 12 sessions
Meta-analyses and Systematic Reviews
- Effectiveness of psychological and pharmacological treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A quantitative review (Abramowitz, 1997)
Clinical Trials
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy vs risperidone for augmenting serotonin reuptake inhibitors in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A randomized clinical trial (Simpson et al., 2013)
- Six-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial augmenting serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment with exposure and ritual prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder (Foa et al., 2013)
- Effectiveness of exposure and ritual prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder: Randomized compared with nonrandomized samples (Franklin et al., 2000)
- Cognitive therapy and exposure in vivo in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (van Oppen et al., 1995)
- Deliberate exposure and blocking of obsessive-compulsive rituals: Immediate and long-term effects (Foa et al., 1984)
- Differential effects of exposure and response prevention in obsessive-compulsive washers (Foa, Steketee, & Milby, 1980)
- Effects of imaginal exposure to feared disasters in obsessive-compulsive checkers (Foa et al., 1980)
Video Repository
Books Available for Purchase Through External Sites
Measures, Handouts and Worksheets
- Treating Your OCD with Exposure and Response (Ritual) Prevention Therapy: Workbook (Yadin, Foa, & Lichner)
- Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory – Revised (Foa et al.)
Training Materials and Workshops
- The Center for Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA offers workshops on EX/RP.
- The American Institute of Cognitive Therapy in New York City offers workshops in treatment of OCD, using elements of both cognitive therapy and exposure and response prevention.
- The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies has previously offered workshops with training in exposure therapy for OCD at its annual conference.
- The Beck Institute in Philadelphia, PA offers training in EX/RP.
Related Diagnosis
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
EST Status
N/A
2015 EST Status
Strong
2015 EST Report Link
Treatment-Review-ERP-for-OCD.pdf
1998 EST Status
Strong