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Jonathan Abramowitz
Jonathan Stuart Abramowitz (born June 11, 1969) is an American clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). He is an expert on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders whose work is highly cited. He maintains a research lab and serves as the Director of the UNC-CH Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic. Abramowitz approaches the understanding and treatment of psychological problems from a cognitive-behavioral perspective. Academic career Abramowitz earned his B.A. in Psychology from Muhlenberg College in 1991, his M.A. in Psychology from Bucknell University in 1993, and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Memphis in 1998. He completed both a predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a staff psychologist and Associate Professor at the Mayo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was designated an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and today is the most populous independent city in the United States. As of 2021, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,838,327, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about north northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the third-largest CSA in the nation, with a 2021 estimated population of 9,946,526. Prior to European colonization, the Baltimore region was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock Native Americans, who were primarily settled further northwest than where the city was later built. Colonist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and South Carolina to the south, and Tennessee to the west. In the 2020 census, the state had a population of 10,439,388. Raleigh is the state's capital and Charlotte is its largest city. The Charlotte metropolitan area, with a population of 2,595,027 in 2020, is the most-populous metropolitan area in North Carolina, the 21st-most populous in the United States, and the largest banking center in the nation after New York City. The Raleigh-Durham-Cary combined statistical area is the second-largest metropolitan area in the state and 32nd-most populous in the United States, with a population of 2,043,867 in 2020, and is home to the largest research park in the United States, Research Triangle Park. The earliest evidence of human occupation i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thought-action Fusion
Thought-Action Fusion (TAF) is the tendency for individuals to assume that certain thoughts either increase the likelihood of catastrophic events (likelihood-TAF) or imply the immorality of their character (morality-TAF). In more technical terms, TAF is a polyseme defining false beliefs or self-confusing mind wandering about a biased and painful association/fusion between subjects' spontaneous thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, a ...s and imaginary latent egodystonic desires or magical-thinking capabilities. These imaginary latent Egosyntonic and egodystonic, egodystonic desires or magical thinking, magical-thinking capabilities generally express harmful action (philosophy), actions/behaviours (e.g., compulsive behavior, compulsions) that subjects appraise as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale
The Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) is a 20-item self-report instrument that assesses the severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms along four empirically supported theme-based dimensions: (a) contamination, (b) responsibility for harm and mistakes, (c) incompleteness/symmetry, and (d) unacceptable (taboo) thoughts. The scale was developed in 2010 by a team of experts on OCD led by Jonathan Abramowitz, PhD to improve upon existing OCD measures and advance the assessment and understanding of OCD. The DOCS contains four subscales (corresponding to the four symptom dimensions) that have been shown to have good reliability, validity, diagnostic sensitivity, and sensitivity to treatment effects in a variety of settings cross-culturally and in different languages. As such, the DOCS meets the needs of clinicians and researchers who wish to measure current OCD symptoms or assess changes in symptoms over time (e.g., over the course of treatment). Rationale Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excoriation Disorder
Excoriation disorder, more commonly known as dermatillomania, is a mental disorder on the obsessive–compulsive spectrum that is characterized by the repeated urge or impulse to pick at one's own skin, to the extent that either psychological or physical damage is caused. Signs and symptoms Episodes of skin picking are often preceded or accompanied by tension, anxiety, or stress. In some cases, following picking, the affected person may feel depressed. During these moments, there is commonly a compulsive urge to pick, squeeze, or scratch at a surface or region of the body, often at the location of a perceived skin defect. When picking, one may feel a sense of relief or satisfaction. The region most commonly picked is the face, but other frequent locations include the arms, legs, back, gums, neck, shoulders, scalp, abdomen, chest, and extremities such as the fingernails, cuticles, toenails, etc. Most patients with excoriation disorder report having a primary area of the body ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania (TTM), also known as hair-pulling disorder or compulsive hair pulling, is a mental disorder characterized by a long-term urge that results in the pulling out of one's own hair. A brief positive feeling may occur as hair is removed. Efforts to stop pulling hair typically fail. Hair removal may occur anywhere; however, the head and around the eyes are most common. The hair pulling is to such a degree that it results in distress and hair loss can be seen. The disorder may run in families. It occurs more commonly in those with obsessive compulsive disorder. Episodes of pulling may be triggered by anxiety. People usually acknowledge that they pull their hair, and broken hairs may be seen on examination. Other conditions that may present similarly include body dysmorphic disorder; however, in that condition people remove hair to try to improve what they see as a problem in how they look. Treatment is typically with cognitive behavioral therapy. The medication clom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DSM-5
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). In the United States, the DSM serves as the principal authority for psychiatric diagnoses. Treatment recommendations, as well as payment by health care providers, are often determined by DSM classifications, so the appearance of a new version has practical importance. The DSM-5 is the only DSM to use an Arabic numeral instead of a Roman numeral in its title, as well as the only living document version of a DSM. The DSM-5 is not a major revision of the DSM-IV-TR but there are significant differences. Changes in the DSM-5 include the reconceptualization of Asperger syndrome from a distinct disorder to an autism spectrum disorder; the elimination of subtypes of schizophrenia; the deletion of the "bereavement exclusion" for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compulsive Hoarding
Compulsive behavior is defined as performing an action persistently and repetitively. Compulsive behaviors could be an attempt to make obsessions go away. The act is usually a small, restricted and repetitive behavior, yet not disturbing in a pathological way. Compulsive behaviors are a need to reduce apprehension caused by internal feelings a person wants to abstain from or control. A major cause of compulsive behavior is said to be obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD).(1996). Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Decade of the Brain. National Institutes of Health. "The main idea of compulsive behavior is that the likely excessive activity is not connected to the purpose to which it appears directed." There are many different types of compulsive behaviors including shopping, hoarding, eating, gambling, trichotillomania and picking skin, itching, checking, counting, washing, sex, and more. Also, there are cultural examples of compulsive behavior. Disorders in which it is seen Addicti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exposure Therapy
Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy to treat anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy involves exposing the target patient to the anxiety source or its context without the intention to cause any danger (desensitization). Doing so is thought to help them overcome their anxiety or distress. Procedurally, it is similar to the fear extinction paradigm developed for studying laboratory rodents. Numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias. Medical uses Generalized anxiety disorder There is empirical evidence that exposure therapy can be an effective treatment for people with generalized anxiety disorder, citing specifically in vivo exposure therapy, (exposure through a real life situation), which has greater effectiveness than imaginal exposure in regards to generalized anxiety disorde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), occasionally still called dysmorphophobia, is a mental disorder characterized by the obsessive idea that some aspect of one's own body part or appearance is severely flawed and therefore warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it. In BDD's delusional variant, the flaw is imagined. If the flaw is actual, its importance is severely exaggerated. Either way, thoughts about it are pervasive and intrusive, and may occupy several hours a day, causing severe distress and impairing one's otherwise normal activities. BDD is classified as a somatoform disorder, and the ''DSM-5'' categorizes BDD in the obsessive–compulsive spectrum, and distinguishes it from anorexia nervosa. BDD is estimated to affect from 0.7% to 2.4% of the population. It usually starts during adolescence and affects both men and women. The BDD subtype muscle dysmorphia, perceiving the body as too small, affects mostly males. Besides thinking about it, one repetitively checks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acceptance And Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, typically pronounced as the word "act") is a form of psychotherapy, as well as a branch of clinical behavior analysis. It is an empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies along with commitment and behavior-change strategies to increase psychological flexibility. This approach was originally termed ''comprehensive distancing''. Steven C. Hayes developed the treatment starting around 1982 in order to create an approach that integrated both key features of cognitive therapy and behavior analysis, especially behavior analytic data on the often negative effects of verbal rules and how they might be ameliorated. There are a variety of protocols for ACT, depending on the target behavior and setting. For example, in behavioral health areas, a brief version of ACT is called ''focused acceptance and commitment therapy'' (FACT). The objective of ACT is not elimination of difficult feelings; rath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exposure And Response Prevention
Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy to treat anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy involves exposing the target patient to the anxiety source or its context without the intention to cause any danger (desensitization). Doing so is thought to help them overcome their anxiety or distress. Procedurally, it is similar to the fear extinction paradigm developed for studying laboratory rodents. Numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias. Medical uses Generalized anxiety disorder There is empirical evidence that exposure therapy can be an effective treatment for people with generalized anxiety disorder, citing specifically in vivo exposure therapy, (exposure through a real life situation), which has greater effectiveness than imaginal exposure in regards to generalized anxiety disorde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
