Comparing the Effect of Exposure and Response Prevention and Paradoxical Time Table Therapy Techniques on the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Patients

Aims Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders. Almost about five million Americans are identified with OCD every year. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and paradoxical time table therapy technique on OCD patients.  Methods & Materials This experimental study was an extension of the multi-group pre-test post-test design. The statistical population of the study consisted of all OCD patients referred to private clinics and psychotherapy centers in Tehran in 2018, of whom 45 cases were selected through available sampling randomly assigned to three groups of 15. Patients in the first group received ERP (8 sessions) and patients in the second group received a paradoxical time table technique (4 sessions) individually. In the present study, the Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (1997) was used. The data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) using SPSS software.  Findings The results showed the significant effectiveness of ERP and the paradoxical time table technique on the reduction of OCD (P<0.001).      Conclusion Paradoxical time table therapy, as an alternative treatment of response prevention technique, can eliminate maladaptive thinking strategies about anxiety as well as uncompromising threat monitoring in OCD patients.