Cognitive behavioral therapy for compulsive buying disorder

To our knowledge, no psychotherapy treatment studies for compulsive buying have been published. The authors conducted a pilot trial comparing the efficacy of a group cognitive behavioral intervention designed for the treatment of compulsive buying to a waiting list control. Twenty-eight subjects were assigned to receive active treatment and 11 to the waiting list control group. The results at the end of treatment showed significant advantages for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) over the waiting list in reductions in the number of compulsive buying episodes and time spent buying, as well as scores on the Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale—Shopping Version and the Compulsive Buying Scale. Improvement was well-maintained at 6-month follow-up. The pilot data suggests that a cognitive behavioral intervention can be quite effective in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. This model requires further testing.     

Cognitive and behavioral distancing from the poor

The author argues that distancing is the dominant response to poor people on the part of those who are not poor and that distancing, separation, exclusion, and devaluing operationally define discrimination. Such responses, together with stereotypes and prejudice, define classism. The article focuses on classism in the United States. Classism is examined in the context of theoretical propositions about the moral exclusion of stigmatized others and is illustrated by cognitive distancing, institutional distancing (in education, housing, health care, legal assistance, politics, and public policy), and interpersonal distancing. The adoption of the Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status by the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives in August 2000 is cited as an important step in the direction of eliminating the invisibility of low-income persons in psychological research and theory.     

Cognitive dysfunction in compulsive checkers: Further explorations

Recent evidence suggests a relationship between certain memory deficits and compulsive-checking behavior. The present study explores this relationship in the context of several additional memory capacities not yet investigated. Using the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory and the Everyday Checking Behavior Scale four groups of Ss were identified: (1) frequent checkers, (2) occasional checkers, (3) infrequent checkers and (4) noncheckers. Consistent with previous research, a memory-for-actions task indicated a deficit among compulsive checkers. Furthermore, checking status was found to be negatively related to memory functioning as measured by the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). This memory deficit was most pronounced on the Logical Memory subtest of the WMS. Checkers appear to have difficulty recalling details of meaningfully linked sequences, either presented in narrative form or engaged in personally. Although the reasons for these checking-related deficits are not clear, a complete understanding of checking phenomena will involve an appreciation of the role played by memory deficits.     

Cognitive behavioral grief therapy

From a REBT perspective, loss through death is viewed as an intense negative and traumatic Activating event which effects the Belief system and related emotional and behavioral Consequences. Grief, then, is seen as a normal reaction and the process that follows is a necessary one characterized by the bereaved attempting to reorganize a shattered belief system. In the present paper a distinction between functional and dysfunctional grief is made. Based on Ellis' differentiation between iB's and RB's, typical irrational grief-related beliefs are identified (with specific focus on pain related ones). Various REBT interventions aimed at facilitating a more functional, healthier course of grief are suggested.     

Psychostimulant-induced behavior as an animal model of obsessive-compulsive disorder: an ethological approach to the form of compulsive rituals

Rats treated chronically with the D2/D3 dopamine receptor agonist quinpirole show a pattern of behavior that meets a set of ethologically derived criteria of compulsive behavior in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Moreover, in both quinpirole-treated rats and OCD patients, the structure of compulsive rituals appear similar in being composed of relatively few motor acts that are organized in a flexible yet recurrent manner. In addition, the development of compulsive behavior in quinpirole-treated rats is attenuated by the OCD pharmacotherapeutic drug clomipramine. These similarities support the validity of quinpirole-treated rats as a psychostimulant-induced animal model of OCD. Considering that the induction of compulsive behavior in the rat model involves chronic hyperstimulation of dopamine receptors, this raises the possibility that dopaminergic mechanisms may play a role in OCD, at least in some subtypes of this disorder.