Background and objectives

Preliminary findings suggest that acceptance and commitment therapy-informed exposure therapy may be an effective treatment for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). However, there is a lack of experimental studies that have examined immediate effects of acceptance-based strategies during exposure to disorder-relevant stimuli in persons with OCD.

Methods

Fifty-three inpatients (64% female) with OCD participated in an experimental study during which they were exposed to obsessive–compulsive washing-relevant pictures and were instructed to either passively view these pictures for 5 s (neutral condition), to accept their feelings (acceptance condition) or to intensify their feelings (exposure condition) for 90 s each.

Results

The acceptance condition led to higher acceptance and lower unpleasantness of patients’ current feelings compared to the neutral condition and to lower strength of obsessions and urge to perform compulsions but only when compared to the exposure condition. Higher self-reported OCD symptom severity related to higher unpleasantness and strength of obsessions, particularly in the neutral condition.

Limitations

Future studies need to test whether the current findings translate to other stimuli and other forms of obsessions and compulsions. Due to the short duration, the exposure condition might have only mimicked the early phase of exposure and response prevention.

Conclusions

Acceptance-based strategies during cue exposure immediately increase acceptance of and reduce unpleasant feelings. In line with the rationale of acceptance-based treatment approaches, which do not aim at immediate disorder-specific symptom reductions, effects on obsessions and compulsions may be more delayed or require repeated training sessions.

中文翻译：

---

基于接受的策略对强迫症住院患者对障碍相关刺激的心理反应的影响：一项实验研究

背景和目标

初步研究结果表明，基于接受和承诺疗法的暴露疗法可能是治疗强迫症（OCD）的有效方法。然而，缺乏实验研究来检验基于接受的策略在强迫症患者暴露于与疾病相关的刺激时的直接效果。

方法

53 名患有强迫症的住院患者（64% 为女性）参加了一项实验研究，在此期间他们接触了与强迫性洗涤相关的图片，并被指示被动地观看这些图片 5 秒（中性条件），以接受自己的感受（接受条件）或加强他们的感受（暴露条件）各90秒。

结果

与中性条件相比，接受条件导致患者当前感受的接受度更高，不愉快程度更低，并且强迫观念和执行强迫行为的冲动强度更低，但仅与暴露条件相比。自我报告的强迫症症状严重程度越高，与不愉快程度和强迫观念强度越高相关，特别是在中性状态下。

局限性

未来的研究需要测试当前的发现是否可以转化为其他刺激和其他形式的强迫症。由于持续时间短，暴露条件可能仅模仿暴露和反应预防的早期阶段。

结论

在线索暴露期间基于接受的策略会立即增加接受度并减少不愉快的感觉。与基于接受的治疗方法的基本原理一致，这种治疗方法的目的不是立即减少特定疾病的症状，对强迫观念和强迫行为的影响可能会更加延迟或需要重复的培训课程。