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Medical Author:

Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD

Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD

Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist. She is a former Chair of the Committee on Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and Medical Director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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Psychological treatments for OCD include cognitive therapy, which helps the person counteract negative thoughts that lead to compulsions, as well as exposure and response-prevention therapies. Behavior modification therapy focuses on helping the OCD sufferer avoid and eventually extinguish the urges to engage in compulsive behaviors, while remaining free of anxiety. Examples of behavior therapies include response prevention, which involves delaying and eventually avoiding engaging in compulsions, and exposure, which allows the person with OCD to practice response prevention by repeatedly putting the person in a situation that may lend itself to engaging in compulsions. Children and adolescents tend to respond very well to exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy, whether it is provided on an individual basis with the family involved in treatment or care that is provided through group therapy.

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