Mechanisms and Effectiveness of Imagery Strategies in Reducing Disgust in Contamination-Related Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Comparing Imagery Rescripting, Imagery Self-compassion and Mood-Focused Imagery

Jakob Fink-Lamotte (Corresponding Author), Pauline Platter, Christian Stierle, Cornelia Exner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Strong feelings of disgust and anxiety are maintaining factors in contamination-related obsessive–compulsive disorder (C-OCD). To this day there are not many studies that investigated strategies for changing pathological disgust. In a previous study, it was shown that imagery rescripting could successfully change disgust. However, whether imagery rescripting or more general imagery processing, helps to reduce pathological disgust, remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate how successful imagery rescripting is in comparison to imagery self-compassion and a passive positive imagery condition in reducing disgust. Methods: For this, the three strategies were compared to each other on 2 days (within-subject) in a laboratory experiment. The study included 24 subjects with diagnosed C-OCD, and 24 matched, healthy controls (between-subject). Results: The results show that all three strategies changed disgust, they do not differ from each other and that different traits appear to influence the strategies’ success or failure. The theoretically derived underlying mechanisms of the strategies were found in an elaborate content analysis. Conclusions: The present study provides first indications that imagery in general can help to change pathological disgust experience.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)747-763
Number of pages17
JournalCognitive Therapy and Research
Volume46
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords*

  • Compassion
  • Contamination
  • Disgust
  • Imagery
  • Obsessive–compulsive disorder

Field of Science*

  • 5.1 Psychology

Publication Type*

  • 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database

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