Saturday report in Assisi, Italy

The second day started with Marcel van der Hout who, with his colleagues, have further tested the exposure + safety behaviour hypothesis previously reported by Rücklab in the journal club online. This study investigated in more detail what kind of processes are involved. The meeting group also discussed whether exposure + safety behaviours perhaps could be regarded as an exposure hierarchy. Prof. van der Hout drew parallel lines with this research and the research conducted by Adam Radomsky in snake phobics.

Guy Doron from Israel presented results from an under researched area called relationship based OCD (e.g. pathological doubts about both the relationship). The group also discussed why this should be in the OCD cluster and not in other related disorders as for example Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Davide Dettore reported results indicating that patients who respond from exposure with response prevention significantly decrease meta cognitive beliefs. More specifically, the domains that changed were intolerance of uncertainty and overestimation of threat.

Elizabeth McIngvale reported about a new automated Webb intervention in the US called “The OCD challenge”.

Franscesca D’Olimio and colleagues have done some advanced experiments, which together support the notion that deontic guilt can be a major driving force in developing compulsions.

Gideon Anholt presented his thoughts and perhaps the beginning of a better model in understanding OCD. The model is based on that individuals with weaker response inhibition are more likely to respond to intrusive thoughts.

Gudrun Sartory presented a recent study together with Gisela Röper (who’s paper have been reported in the journal club vintage series) investigating two different OCD questionnaires (Y-BOCS & VOCI). Results showed that the two questionnaires differed and that different interpretations can be drawn from this.

Last but not least was Andrea Spoto who has developed a new smart adapting assessment tool.

The whole meeting was arranged by Barbara Barccaccia who made a tremendous job in organizing everything. The night ended with a dinner and Dr. Francesco Mancini brought some fantastic gifts to the whole meeting group from his vineyard. Look, It even has a CBT label!

Desperate for more conference reports? Don’t worry. Rucklab will in two weeks visit and present at the European association for research on internet interventions located outside Hamburg.