Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Paul S. Turner is the author of numerous articles and books. He practices banking and commercial law and consults on legal matters, with offices in Los Angeles, California. He first became familiar with the risks of payment systems as a lawyer at Occidental Petroleum Corporation, where as an assistant general counsel he advised the Occidental treasury department. He was an official advisor to the uniform law commissioners who wrote Article 4A (Funds Transfers) of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and revised UCC Articles 3 (Negotiable Instruments), 4 (Banks Deposits and Collections), and 5 (Letters of Credit). He has served as a member of the Payments Advisory Group of the Association for Financial Professionals and is vice chair of the American Bar Association's Payments Committee, a subcommittee of the Association's Business Law Section.

Recent advances in behavioral and biological treatments have raised the hopes and expectations of patients and clinicians alike in regard to obsessive-compulsive disorder-one of the most disabling, crippling, and resistant conditions in psy chiatry. In addition to their therapeutic efficacy, these new treatments have also opened new conceptual perspectives, thus complementing the traditional psychological theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Therefore, it is timely for these various conceptual frameworks and the treatment modalities they engender to be integrated and synthesized in the pres ent volume. To this end, eminent scholars in their respective areas were invited to contribute to this book, which we hope will symbolize and-in some measure-actualize the spirit of collaboration required if we are to fully comprehend the com plex nature of this disorder as well as to address existing ther apeutic challenges. In Chapter 1, Rachman sets the stage by providing an overview of the conceptual and therapeutic issues of obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is followed by an in depth review of the behavioral interventions from which Foa vii viii PREFACE and colleagues successfully distill the specific therapeutic processes of exposure and response prevention. In the third chapter, Sifneos deals with the psychodynamic factors under lying obsessive-compulsive phenomena and details his in novative technique of brief, anxiety-provoking psychotherapy aimed specifically at the obsessional state.

Springer Book Archives

1 An Overview of Clinical and Research Issues in Obsessional-Compulsive Disorders.- 2 Behavior Therapy with Obsessive-Compulsives: From Theory to Treatment.- Chaffer 3 Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy for Patients Suffering from an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.- 4 Comments on the Psychological Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Patients.- 5 Pharmacotherapy of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.- 6 Future Directions in the Assessment and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.