Work

The effect of attention training on a behavioral test of contamination fears in individuals with subclinical obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: In the current study, we evaluated the effectiveness of attention training in individuals with subclinical obsessive-compulsive symptoms. We hypothesized that after completing attention training, participants would be more likely to complete steps in a hierarchy approaching their feared contaminant compared with participants in the control condition. Participants completed a probe detection task by identifying letters replacing one member of a pair of words (neutral or contamination related). We trained attention by building a contingency between the location of the contamination-related word in the active condition and not in the control condition. Participants in the active group showed a significant reduction in attention bias for threat and completed significantly more steps when approaching their feared objects compared with participants in the control group. Our results suggest that attention disengagement training may facilitate approaching feared objects in individuals with obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Source: Journal of Abnormal Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/a0017549

Authors: Sadia Najmi, Nader Amir

Institutions: San Diego State University, University of California San Diego

Language: English

Topic: Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health