Abstract
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has long been considered as an anxiety disorder, disgust is the dominant emotion in contamination-based OCD. However, disgust seems resistant to exposure with response prevention partly due to the fact that disgust is acquired through evaluative conditioning. The present research investigates a counter-conditioning intervention in treating disgust-related emotional responses in two groups of individuals with high (High contamination concerns, HCC, n = 24) and low (Low contamination concerns LCC, n = 23) contamination concerns. The two groups completed a differential associative learning task in which neutral images were followed by disgusting images (conditioned stimulus; CS+), or not (CS-). Following this acquisition phase, there was a counter-conditioning procedure in which CS+ was followed by a very pleasant unconditional stimulus while CS- remained unreinforced. Following counter-conditioning, both groups reported significant reduction in their expectancy of US occurrence and reported less disgust with CS+. For both expectancy and disgust, reduction was lower in the HCC group than in the LCC group. Disgust sensitivity was highly correlated with both acquisition and maintenance of the response acquired, while US expectation was predicted by anxiety. Counter-conditioning procedure reduces both expectations and conditioned disgust.
Highlights
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychological disorder whose prevalence is estimated between 1.5% and 3.5% of the world population
Following counter-conditioning, both groups reported significant reduction in their expectancy of unconditional stimulus (US) occurrence and reported less disgust with conditional stimulus (CS)+. For both expectancy and disgust, reduction was lower in the high concerns about dirt and contamination (HCC) group than in the low concerns regarding dirt and contamination (LCC) group
Disgust sensitivity was highly correlated with both acquisition and maintenance of the response acquired, while US expectation was predicted by anxiety
Summary
OCD is a psychological disorder whose prevalence is estimated between 1.5% and 3.5% of the world population. This disorder affects all cultural and ethnic groups and is considered by the World health organization as one of the 10 most disabling mental health disorders [1]. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy program with the most empirical support for its efficacy is exposure with response prevention (ERP), even in the most severe cases [3]. From a theoretical point of view, ERP is based on the cognitive-behavioral model in which the mechanisms of fear acquisition through Pavlovian Conditioning play an important conceptual role in explaining the development and the maintenance of the symptoms [5]. Disgust seems resistant to exposure with response prevention partly due to the fact that disgust is acquired through evaluative conditioning
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