Training Parents to Become Therapists: Crucial Strategies for Successful Child OCD Treatment

September 15th, 2008 | Leave a comment »
Published by Dr. Yip

It cannot be stressed enough the necessity of involving parents and other caretakers into child OCD treatment. This is also essential for those adults with OCD who continue to live with and depend upon their parents.

OCD typically involve other family members of the patient suffering from this disorder. It significantly interferes with family dynamics, and has a significant impact on family functioning. In addition, families play a critical role in the child’s OCD treatment readiness, compliance, recovery rate, and relapse. Thus, consideration of the familial context, developing healthy collaborative relationships among the patient, his/her family, and the therapist, and integrating the family into treatment is vital to child OCD treatment outcome, since families are an integral part of the lives of individuals with OCD.
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State of Affairs in the World of BDD

September 15th, 2008 | Leave a comment »
Published by Dr. Yip

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a disabling condition that until recently has been largely ignored. However, it is estimated that 1-2 % of the general population has BDD, nearly 5 million people in the US alone (Gorbis 2004b, Bohne et al. 2002, Otto et al. 2001).

Sufferers of BDD worry excessively and unreasonably about some flaw in their appearance that may be minimal or even nonexistent (Gorbis & Kholodenko 2005, Phillips et al. 1993). These excessive worries and fears prompt sufferers to ritualize their behaviors by constantly checking the supposed defects in mirrors, seeking reassurance of their images from others, obtaining unnecessary cosmetic and/or dermatological procedures, and even conducting self-surgeries (Rosen et al. 1995, Phillips et al. 2000, Veale 2000, Phillips et al. 2005). These obsessive concerns and compulsive behaviors cause significant emotional distress and often significantly interfere with global functioning (DeMarco 1998, Gorbis & Anan’Yev 2004).
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OCD-Anorexia

September 15th, 2008 | Leave a comment »
Published by Dr. Yip

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the most common anxiety disorder, occurring in 40% of people suffering from anorexia nervosa (Kaye et al., 2004). Both disorders share many phenomenological similarities. The fears and obsessions of people with anorexia nervosa are similar to the obsessions that people with OCD experience. While the anorexic fears gaining weight and becoming obese, the person with OCD fears ingesting food that is contaminated with germs and bacteria and becoming sick. The compulsive behaviors exhibited by anorexics include excessive dieting, over-exercising, repeatedly evaluating themselves in mirrors, and stereotypical weight checking. Food-related rituals, such as cutting food into tiny pieces, are characteristic of both anorexia and OCD. For anorexics, compulsions serve to relief tension and fear of gaining weight, and reinforce ritualistic habits in an attempt to control weight gain.
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