The Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy on Clinical Symptom and Emotional Schemas in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Failure in emotional regulation process was reported as a major problem in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In the emotional schema therapy (EST), the roles of emotions and emotion processing strategies are substantial. This study aimed at determining the effectiveness of EST in emotional schema (ES) of women with OCD. It was a quasi-experimental study. The statistical population included all women visiting consulting centers in Nishabur in 2014-2015. The research sample consisted of 20 patients with OCD (10 persons as the intervention group and 10 persons in the waiting list), selected using convenience sampling technique. The intervention group received a two-hour per week for 12 sessions. The research instrument included Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and Leahy Emotional Schema Scale. Data were analyzed with ANCOVA. Results from data analysis suggested a significance difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of Validity, Comprehensibility, Guilt, Higher Values, Control, Numbness , Duration, Consensus, Expression and Blame; whereas, the two groups were not significantly different in terms of Simplistic View of Emotion, Rational, Acceptance of Feelings and Rumination. In general, results of this study show that EST has positive effect on the reduction of OCD and can be used as an effective method in correcting several emotional schemas in women with OCD.