Which intervention is designed for OCD?

• A. Relaxation training
• B. Systematic Desensitization
• C. Behavior contracts
• D. Exposure & Ritual Prevention

Answer: (D)

The intervention that directly targets the OCD cycle is exposure with ritual prevention. In OCD, obsessions create distress, and compulsive rituals temporarily reduce that distress, which reinforces the cycle. Exposure with ritual prevention teaches the child to face the feared trigger without performing the usual ritual, allowing anxiety to rise and then gradually diminish (habituation). Over time, the urge to perform the ritual weakens, and the connection between the obsession and the compulsion loosens.

This is the best choice because it directly disrupts the compulsive response that maintains OCD, rather than just teaching general anxiety management or relying on avoidance strategies. For example, a child with contamination obsessions might touch a surface and then refrain from washing for gradually longer periods, with support to tolerate the resulting anxiety.

Relaxation training helps with general anxiety but doesn’t specifically address the obsession-ritual cycle. Systematic desensitization is mainly used for phobias and combines relaxation with graded exposure, which doesn’t target compulsive rituals in OCD as effectively. Behavior contracts focus on external rules and do not directly modify obsession-driven behaviors or cognitive aspects of OCD.