Treating Children With Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, DVD

With Eric A. Storch, PhD

Closed Captioned
Publication Date: May 2020

ORDER CODE: APA-4310021


Obsessive–compulsive disorder, or OCD, affects 1 in 200 children, and is characterized by unwanted, distressing and repeated thoughts that lead to compulsive actions. Children and adults suffering from OCD usually hold the false notion that rituals reduce anxiety and distressing thoughts, and this belief inevitably results in a pattern of repetitive negative reinforcement.

The most effective interventions often focus on breaking this pattern, and in this video, Dr. Eric A. Storch illustrates this aspect of the approach with a vivid application of exposure and response prevention. The therapy demonstration in this program shows Dr. Storch working for the fifth session with a nine-year-old girl and her mother, helping the child confront her fear that she will physically harm those she loves.

This demonstration features actors portraying clients on the basis of a composite of actual cases.



Approach
Dr. Eric Storch’s approach to treating pediatric OCD focuses primarily on exposure and response prevention from a family-based perspective. This involves having the person with OCD face their fear or the possibility of the feared outcome taking place while refraining from engaging in repetitive, time-consuming compulsions.

This is based on the notion that rituals serve to reduce anxiety and distress and are thus reinforcing. Triggers are approached gradually with easier stimuli targeted initially. The person remains in the distress provoking situation until anxiety and distress habituates naturally (i.e., in the absence of rituals or other behaviors to reduce anxiety such as relaxation).

Family members are engaged to provide appropriate support.

About the Therapist
Dr. Eric Storch is professor and McIngvale Presidential Endowed Chair in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). He serves as vice chair and head of psychology, and oversees the CBT for OCD program at BCM.

Dr. Storch has received multiple grants from federal agencies for his research (i.e., NIH, CDC), is a Fulbright Scholar, and has published more than 14 books and more than 550 articles and chapters.

He specializes in the nature and treatment of childhood and adult obsessive–compulsive disorder and related conditions, anxiety disorders, and anxiety among youth with autism.