Clinical social work and obsessive compulsive disorder. A single-subject investigation.

Clinical research on the purely obsessional patient is considerably less developed than that for compulsive ritualizers or obsessive compulsives with mixed features. A single case investigation of exposure therapy in the treatment of obsessive ruminations is presented. Treatment involved exposing the patient to a variety of stimuli related to obsessional thoughts including reading, writing, and listening to such content. The patient's immediate response to treatment was favorable, with improvements being maintained at two-year follow-up.