More than 80% of people with OCD never receive ERP, the gold-standard psychotherapy for OCD treatment. Digital, smart-phone based interventions offer a promising solution to address this treatment gap. However,… Read more »
Bridging Genetic Risk to Brain Mechanisms: A Region-Specific, Reverse-Translational Approach to OCD Pathophysiology
OCD research points to problems within a network of brain regions involved in decision-making, habits, and behavioral control. Genes help control how these brain regions develop and function, but most… Read more »
Mapping OCD Genetic Risk to Brain Cell Types and Molecular Programs
Brain imaging studies have given us an idea of which parts of the brain might be affected in OCD, but the brain contains hundreds of different types of cells, and… Read more »
Creation of the first body dysmorphic disorder genomic biobank
Although past research with twins has shown that genes likely play an important role in the development of dysmorphic concerns, there is still very little understanding of their exact role… Read more »
Brain mechanisms of appearance misperception in body dysmorphic disorder: Contributions of bottom-up and top-down processing of bodies and faces
Research shows that people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) may have differences in visual processing that change how they pay attention to things (like focusing on small details) and how… Read more »
Comprehensive structural neuroimaging in OCD: A cross-disorder comparison
Brain imaging has improved our understanding of OCD, but biological causes are still unclear at this time. While previous studies have identified alterations in the volume or thickness of certain… Read more »
A web-based single session intervention to reduce caregiver distress and accommodation in socioeconomically diverse caregivers of OCD patients: Project EMPOWER-OCD
Although effective treatments for OCD exist, more than half of people with OCD never receive the care they need, especially if they have financial challenges. Caregivers, who play a critical… Read more »
Nothing to fear: Developing and piloting treatment and training procedures for non-fear-based presentations of obsessive-compulsive disorder
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) mainly focuses on reducing fear, which is a good fit for patients who do compulsions in response to anxiety or to avoid feared outcomes. However,… Read more »
Co-delivered exposure with response prevention in Outback Australia: A novel training model to increase access to evidence-based care for OCD in rural settings
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is highly effective for treating children and adolescents with OCD, with up to 70% improving from treatment. Unfortunately, there is a well-documented lack of clinicians… Read more »
Who learns from OCD exposures? Investigating pessimistic learning rates and cognitive immunization during expectancy violation
Although exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the most effective psychological treatment for OCD, only half of patients will reach symptom remission after completing it. Understanding the mechanism behind ERP… Read more »