Falling into the OCD trap: Are clinicians hesitant to encourage exposure therapy for repugnant obsessions?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can involve repugnant obsessions with aggressive, sexual, and/or religious themes. Although exposure and response prevention (ERP) is an effective treatment for OCD, negative beliefs about exposure are common and may cause clinicians to be hesitant to encourage exposures, especially for repugnant obsessions. This study examined whether clinicians’ willingness to encourage challenging exposures differed …