A Comparison of Efficacy of the Whittal Cognitive Therapy and Thought Stopping for Patients with Obsession Disorder

Having intrusive thoughts is a characteristic of people with obsession disorder. They deal with thoughts such as perfectionism and intolerance of ambiguity. The present study aimed to examine efficacy of Whittal cognitive therapy and though stopping of patients with obsession disorder. The study was an experimental design applying multi-group pretest-posttest method. 45 subjects with obsession disorder were randomly selected from among patients referred to hospitals, clinical centers, private clinics and counseling centers in Bukan city. They were divided into three groups (Whittal cognitive therapy, thought stopping behavioral treatment and control group). The two test groups attended 8 intervention sessions and before and after the sessions, the participants filled three questionnaires, i.e. Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, intolerance of uncertainty Scale and Perfectionism Scale. Results of the multivariate analysis showed that both treatment methods were effective in reducing obsessive symptoms; however, Whittal cognitive therapy proved to be more effective than thought stopping method. The results of the study indicated the importance of cognitive therapy methods in reducing obsessive symptoms and their being more effective than behavioral therapy methods.