What is rdx treatment for ocd?

Preliminary findings from case studies involving 19 participants with OCD suggest that the new treatment, called Response Disequilibrium Therapy (RDx), may be a promising alternative to traditional OCD treatments, producing similar outcomes more efficiently and with less stress to the client and therapist.

Preliminary findings from case studies involving 19 participants with OCD suggest that the new treatment, called Response Disequilibrium Therapy (RDx), may be a promising alternative to traditional OCD treatments, producing similar outcomes more efficiently and with less stress to the client and therapist.

APS Fellow Richard M. McFall and his colleagues at Indiana University report their findings in Clinical Psychological Science.

Unlike some OCD treatments, RDx does not focus on the causes of a client’s symptoms or other aspects of the client’s life or feelings. Instead, it establishes a controlled link between the client’s symptomatic behavior and a positive daily activity. Access to the positive activity now must be earned by decreasing the baseline level of the negative behavior. This link, or constraint, puts the two behaviors in disequilibrium relative to their baseline levels. Clients will work to establish a new equilibrium by reducing or eliminating their symptomatic behavior.

To illustrate this disequilibrium concept, consider an OCD client who engages in 18 episodes of excessive hand washing per day (not counting normal occasions, such as after using the restroom). The client’s positive behavior is watching TV about 90 minutes per day. The RDx treatment links access to TV viewing to a scheduled reduction in hand washing episodes. The goal in the first week is to cut the hand washing in half, from 18 to 9 episodes per day. Each decrease in daily hand-washing episodes earns 10 minutes of TV time, which the client deposits in a metaphorical “checkbook.” The client cannot watch TV without having earned the time; but if the treatment goal has been met, the client will not be deprived of the normal amount of TV time. Over subsequent weeks the treatment goal is to continue cutting the client’s symptom level in half until it has been reduced or eliminated.

Exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), the current treatment of choice for OCD, requires therapists to expose clients to the triggers for their symptoms, such as shaking hands for someone who dwells on the spread of germs. Therapists provide clients with calming reassurance and the exposure exercise continues until clients’ arousal levels recede significantly, which can take considerable time.

RDx puts clients in charge of implementing their own treatment procedure outside of the therapy session in the same environment that triggers their symptoms.

“In effect, clients learn new behaviors that replace and control their previous symptomatic responses to distressing situations,” McFall explains.

To test the treatment, the researchers randomly assigned a group of 41 patients to either RDx or ERP treatment. Of the 34 clients assigned to RDx, 15 received interventions that deviated from the protocol and were reclassified into a mixed/no treatment group.

All 19 of the study’s OCD clients who received the full RDx treatment and complied with the procedure experienced good to excellent outcomes, the research team reports. Three of the mixed/no treatment patients also showed symptom reductions, although the researchers caution that they can’t attribute the improvements solely to RDx.

RDx may not work for all clients or all problems, the researchers say, but future research could confirm it to be an efficient, cost-effective, and valuable addition to mental health-care providers’ toolbox.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects many individuals around the world, who are looking for a treatment for OCD that will offer them relief.

The most effective treatments for OCD are Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and/or medication. More specifically, the most effective treatments are a type of"Missing: rdx | Must include: rdx

First-line treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) – cognitive behavior therapy drug therapy with selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or

OCD can cause a number of unhealthy fixations and intrusive thoughts. One such compulsion can relate to excessive cleanliness, and treatment options are often difficult, leading patients to experience more distress.

Enter the rubber hand illusion, a classic cognitive science trick that has been investigated in multiple studies over the years. Here's how it works: under certain conditions, if your hand is hidden from view and replaced by a dummy hand, your brain can start to register the fake rubber hand as your own.

The trick usually works if both the real hand and the dummy hand are touched at the same time, such as being stroked with a paintbrush, for example.

(Divya Kumar)

However, previous research has found that in people with schizophrenia or body dysmorphic disorder, the stroking doesn't necessarily have to be in sync for the illusion to take effect.

These findings suggest that some people with mental health disorders might be more susceptible to this rubber hand illusion, and it could therefore be used in place of exposure therapy - a treatment method where patients are gradually exposed to their fears. For people with OCD compulsions that involve cleanliness, this could mean getting the dummy hand dirty, instead of the person's real hand.

"If you can provide an indirect treatment that is reasonably realistic, where you contaminate a rubber hand instead of a real hand, this might provide a bridge that will allow more people to tolerate exposure therapy or even to replace exposure therapy altogether," says neuroscientist Baland Jalal from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

To test the hypothesis, Jalal and colleagues put 29 volunteers with OCD through the rubber hand illusion. For 16 of the group, the rubber hand and real hand were stroked together; for the other 13, they were stroked asynchronously.

After five minutes, fake faeces was then smeared on the rubber hand while the participants had a damp cloth rubbed on their real hand (to simulate the same sensation). The volunteers were then asked to rate their disgust, anxiety, and handwashing urge levels.

In both groups – both synced and unsynced stroking – the subjects reported similar levels of feeling for the hand being real, and for it being contaminated. The trick worked.

The experiment continued for another five minutes, before these ratings were taken again. This time it was the volunteers who had the synced stroking applied who felt the biggest effects from the contamination.

When the participants then had their real right hands covered in fake faeces, again it was the group with the synchronised stroking patterns that had the highest levels of disgust, anxiety, and handwashing urge.

"Over time, stroking the real and fake hands in synchrony appears to create a stronger and stronger and stronger illusion to the extent that it eventually felt very much like their own hand," says Jalal. "This meant that after ten minutes, the reaction to contamination was more extreme."

"Although this was the point our experiment ended, research has shown that continued exposure leads to a decline in contamination feelings – which is the basis of traditional exposure therapy."

In other words, by first fooling the brains of patients into thinking the dummy hands were real, the standard exposure therapy techniques – where those with OCD would be asked to leave their hands dirty for longer and longer periods of time – could be applied in a less direct, less stress-inducing way.

OCD is estimated to affect around 2-3 percent of the general population. Some people with OCD are simply unable to face exposure therapy, so it's not an ideal solution for trying to tackle some of the compulsive behaviour that's happening.

Next, the researchers want to test their hypothesis with a larger group of people, and in direct comparison to other types of treatment – it's early days, but the signs are good that a trick of the brain could help to give some relief to those living with OCD.

For the almost 500,000 Australians who suffer from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), hope is on the horizon as NICM Health Research Institute researchers trial a new treatment which has shown promising results in previous studies.

OCD is a debilitating mental health disorder that can cause patients to experience intrusive thoughts such as a fear of germs or unwanted sexual thoughts, in addition to compulsive behaviours, including repetitive counting or checking, or excessive cleaning or hand washing.

Current treatment options for OCD include high doses of antidepressants, but around 40 per cent of patients receive only minimal relief from symptoms, and can experience side effects including anxiety, insomnia, nausea and sexual dysfunction.

Researchers from NICM Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University have received a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant to trial the use of an amino acid supplement N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) to determine if it is an effective treatment of OCD symptoms.

The study is part of a wider collaboration between researchers from NICM, Western Sydney University; Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne; and the Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Queensland.

Considered an emerging treatment in the field of psychiatric disorders, NAC has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and influences various neurochemicals within the brain.

It has already shown positive results in the treatment of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and in improving impulse control and reducing addictive behaviour for many patients, including those with cocaine or marijuana dependency.

A previous 16-week, double-blind, randomised, controlled trial conducted by the researchers in 2015, which involved 44 participants between the ages of 18-70, found that NAC had an effect in reducing compulsions in people suffering from OCD.

The new trial, which is already underway in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, will aim to recruit a larger sample size of 200 participants who will take NAC or a placebo (dummy pill) over 24 weeks.

NHMRC Clinical Research Fellow Professor Jerome Sarris from NICM Health Research Institute said that NAC is safe to use and shows much promise in the treatment of OCD. He hopes that the trial will lead to an effective treatment to reduce the suffering of patients for whom no effective treatment exists.

“OCD is a debilitating mental health disorder and the need remains for additional therapies to help peoplereduce their obsessions and compulsions,” Professor Sarris said.

“Our clinical trial is designed to look at people who are still unwell with OCD and who need to take medication,but the currently available medicines only provide a certain amount of relief.

“NAC targets a variety of neurochemical pathways which are indicated in a range of mental health disorders.

“If this trial proves successful, we may see NAC used as a standard additional treatment for people with OCD in the next few years.”

Professor Sarris urges anyone experiencing OCD symptoms to contact their GP, medical professional, or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Recruitment for the NAC trial is now underway in NSW at Western Sydney University's Westmead campus, in VIC at the University of Melbourne based in Richmond, and QLD at The University of Queensland, Herston.

New research could improve the odds that people with obsessive-compulsive disorder will receive a therapy that really works for them

By RM McFall · 2019 · Cited by 4 — We present a series of clinical case studies using RDx to treat obsessive-compulsive disorders, report highly favorable results in comparison