In the behavioural treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, a therapist deliberately exposes a patient to a contaminated object and then strictly prevents him from washing his hands until the anxiety subsides on its own. This specific combined technique is called:

• A Systematic desensitisation
• B Token economy
• C Aversion therapy
• D Exposure and response prevention ✓

Explanation

Exposure and response prevention pairs graded exposure to the feared stimulus with prevention of the compulsive ritual, allowing anxiety to extinguish through habituation; it is the psychotherapy of choice for OCD. Systematic desensitisation uses reciprocal inhibition with relaxation training for phobias and does not involve blocking rituals. Aversion therapy pairs the behaviour with an unpleasant stimulus, and token economy is an operant conditioning ward-based reward system.

Reference: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 12th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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