The effectiveness of schema therapy combination with exposure and response prevention method on the distress tolerance and Severity of Obsessive Symptoms of women with washing obsession

The present study investigated the effectiveness of schema therapy combined with exposure and response prevention methods on the distress tolerance and Severity of Obsessive Symptoms of women with washing obsession. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a 2-month follow-up. Its statistical population included all the women referred to counseling clinics under the supervision of the Psychological System Organization in the north and center of Tehran between November 2020 and February 2021 and received a definite diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder by a psychiatrist. In this regard, 30 people were included using a purposeful sampling method and assigned to two experimental and control groups of 15 people. Then, the experimental group received individual intervention for 14 sessions. The research tools included the Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS, Simmons & Gaher,2005) and the Yale-Brown Obsession-Obsession Scale (1989, YBOCS). Data analysis using repeated measurement tests and Bonferroni's post hoc test revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups regarding distress tolerance and obsessive-compulsive disorder in the post-test and follow-up stages (P<0.01). It means that the integration of schema therapy with the exposure and response prevention technique increased distress tolerance and reduced the symptoms of obsession. This effectiveness remained significant until the two-month follow-up stage. According to the results, it can be stated that integrating schema therapy with exposure and response prevention technique is effective in increasing distress tolerance and reducing obsessive symptoms in women with washing obsessive disorder.