Die kognitive verhaltenstherapie der zwangsstörungen - State of the art

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for obsessive compulsive disorder includes a detailed assessment and case conceptualisation followed by a focussed phase of exposure and response prevention and behavioural experiments. Cognitive and behavioural elements are closely interwoven and supplement each other. Dysfunctional automatic misinterpretations of the intrusions as well as more general dysfunctional assumptions are questioned and changed by methods of Socratic questioning and tailored behavioural experiments and exposure tasks. Exposure and response prevention is thus embedded in a systematic cognitive framework and aims mainly at testing alternative ways of interpreting the intrusive thoughts. With therapy progressing, CBT enables the patient to generate, conduct and analyse behavioural experiments independently in order to prevent future relapse.