Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) as an anxiety disorder and is characterized by recurrent unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions).

What are the signs/symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

•Recurrent and persistent intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses (obsessions)
•Repetitive behaviors and/or mental acts that one feels driven to perform in response to the obsession or according to rigidly applied rules (compulsions)
•The compulsions are enacted with the goal of reducing anxiety or distress related to the obsession
•The obsessions are not limited to worries about everyday issues
•The individual unsuccessfully attempts to ignore, suppress, or neutralize obsessions with ritualistic compulsions
•The individual typically recognizes the obsessions as being excessive and/or unreasonable (in adults)
•The obsessions and compulsions cause marked distress, are time consuming, and interfere with one’s daily functioning

How is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder treated?

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and medication have both been demonstrated through scientific investigations to be effective in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, with a combination of the two treatments being most effective.

What is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder involves a procedure called Exposure and Response Prevention. Exposure and Response prevention involves the systematic exposure of an individual to a hierarchy of feared stimuli while preventing the ritualized response. Through this procedure, the individual “habituates,” gradually experiencing less anxiety, and is able to eliminate the compulsive response.

How can The Center for Emotional Health help me?

The Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Treatment Program utilizes state of the art techniques in the treatment of OCD, including exposure and response prevention, behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and supportive approaches to alleviate obsessions and compulsions and improve daily functioning.

How is The Center for Emotional Health uniquely experienced with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Dr. Deibler trained for a full year, 1999, in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders, as an apprentice of Dr. Charles Mansueto of the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington, LLC, one of leading experts in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Following her apprenticeship, Dr. Deibler was awarded a three-year fellowship to research Trichotillomania and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she spent three years interviewing, evaluating, and studying hundreds of individuals with these disorders and their families; she also served as an associate investigator in Genetics of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Collaborative Study. Dr. Deibler produced a 160-page doctoral dissertation as a result of her efforts, “The Five-Factor Model of Personality in Trichotillomania and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Implications for Diagnostic Classification” and was awarded a certificate for “Outstanding Graduate Research” by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Deibler has presented her works at regional, national, and international meetings and has published her work in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Deibler is an active member of the International OCD Foundation (formerly the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation) and has been involved in working with the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder community since 1999. She has also appeared on A&E’s

, CBS evening news, It’s Your Call with Lynn Doyle (Comcast Network, Retirement Living TV), and will be appearing on CBS’s Swift Justice with Nancy Grace in the fall of 2010.