Assessment and treatment of obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders

Date: Thursday 26 June
Time: 11.55am - 1.10pm

Overview

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of a family of related OC conditions, which collectively cause a great deal of suffering yet are often under-recognised and under-treated in psychiatric practice. This symposium will provide an evidence-based practical guide on how to recognise, assess, and treat OC-related conditions, focusing on OCD, body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs), body dysmorphic disorder, and hoarding disorder. Margherita Zenoni, member of the charity ORCHARD (which advances global OCD research) will chair the session and will open it by providing a lived experience perspective on why recognising and treating these conditions is so important.

Professor Naomi Fineberg will provide an overview of OCD, in terms of recognition and first-line interventions, then move on to cover emerging precision medicine approaches through ‘deep-phenotyping’ using physiological and cognitive measures, which have the potential to enhance treatment approaches. Professor Sam Chamberlain will present evidence-based practice for the assessment and treatment of body-focused repetitive behaviour disorders, namely hair-pulling disorder and skin-picking disorder. He will present recently published new work exploring levels of suicidality in affected individuals, as well as a meta-analysis of cognitive processes that are implicated.

Professor Chamberlain will show data from a promising recent randomised controlled trial using memantine in people with BFRBs. Professor Jon Grant will consider body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and hoarding disorder, both widely considered by clinicians as ‘hard to treat’, linked to high levels of impairment and risk when left untreated. He will present recent modifications and enhancements to CBT to help target BDD as well as the particularly important risk issues for these conditions and how to mitigate them.

In this session, you will:

• describe the core features of common OC related conditions, in terms of operational diagnostic criteria and conceptual models
• appreciate the value of using evidence-based screening, diagnostic, and severity tools for these conditions and describe some examples of such tools
• articulate current first-line treatments for different OC related conditions, in terms of psychotherapy and medication options.