Metacognitive therapy versus exposure and response prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder - A non-inferiority randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Exposure with response prevention (ERP) is the first-line treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, refusals, dropouts and the required high time and logistic effort constitute barriers to the use of ERP. In a non-inferiority randomized controlled trial, we compared metacognitive therapy (MCT) to exposure with response prevention (ERP) as treatments for OCD.

The Behavior Avoidance Test: Association With Symptom Severity and Treatment Outcome in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Behavior therapy of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) aims to reduce avoidance, rituals, and discomfort in OCD-relevant situations. The Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT) measures these behavior-related outcomes in individually challenging OCD-related situations. The association of the BAT with OCD severity measures and its relevance for treatment outcome is, however, still unclear.

Metacognitive Change During Exposure and Metacognitive Therapy in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Metacognitive therapy (MCT) has been shown to be a promising treatment approach for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The changeability of metacognitions by (metacognitive) treatment and its relevance to treatment outcome is, however, still unclear. The current study investigates, (1) if treatment with MCT or exposure and response prevention (ERP) in a randomized-controlled pilot trial ( = 24 patients with OCD) changes OCD-specific metacognitions of thought fusion beliefs, beliefs about rituals and stop signals, and (2) if these changes are relevant for the treatment outcome in terms of patient- and therapist-rated OCD symptoms.

Mimicry in psychotherapy - an actor partner model of therapists' and patients' non-verbal behavior and its effects on the working alliance.

The alliance between patient and therapist is central for therapeutic progress. Social mimicry, the automatic imitation of another person, has been linked to building relationships. This is the first preregistered study to systematically investigate mimicry and its effects on the working alliance in real psychotherapy sessions.

The Neural Correlates of Probabilistic Classification Learning in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Individuals suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been found to show deficits in implicitly learning probabilistic associations between events. Neuroimaging studies have associated these implicit learning deficits in OCD individuals with aberrant activation of the striatal system. Recent behavioral studies have highlighted that probabilistic classification learning (PCL) deficits in OCD individuals only occur in a disorder-specific context, while PCL remains intact in a neutral context.