Thought suppression in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Managing unwanted intrusive thoughts in obsessive–compulsive disorder: Relative effectiveness of suppression, focused distraction, and acceptance

“…Moreover, this design circumvents the problem of spontaneous suppression of UITs in the OCD control group. Results from the study by Tolin et al (2002) were consistent with their hypothesis: Individuals with OCD had higher occurrences of a neutral target thought after suppressing than did anxious and nonanxious controls.…”

“…One problem in conducting the thought suppression experiment with OCD patients is the difficulty of finding an appropriate control condition. Tolin, Abramowitz, Przeworski, and Foa (2002) note that instructing individuals with OCD to suppress a UIT is essentially a "non-intervention" since individuals in the nonsuppression control group are being asked to act against what they would naturally do. In fact, Purdon, Rowa, and Antony (2005) found that individuals with OCD exerted effort to suppress their UIT despite explicit instructions not to suppress, and that this suppression effort was correlated with their perceived urgency to control the thought.…”

“…This may explain the absence of suppression rebound or enhancement effects in the studies of instructed suppression of UITs in clinical samples of OCD patients (Janeck & Calamari, 1999;Purdon et al, 2005). Tolin et al (2002) argue that if individuals with OCD have a general deficit in their ability to control thoughts, it will be manifested in their ability to control neutral thoughts. Moreover, this design circumvents the problem of spontaneous suppression of UITs in the OCD control group.…”

Individual Differences Predict Patterns in Spontaneous Involuntary Musical Imagery

“…The first was The Obsessive Compulsive Inventory -Revised (OCI-R; Foa et al, 2002). The second assessed everyday musical behaviors and expertise as a musician or music professional.…”

“…Research has shown that frequency of intrusive thoughts correlates with measures of subclinical OC attributes (García-Soriano, Belloch, Morillo, & Clark, 2011), and that the frequency of neutral as well as negative intrusions is elevated in OC individuals (Tolin, Abramowitz, Przeworski, & Foa, 2002). Individuals with OCD and high subclinical OC attributes also report increased attempts to suppress intrusive thoughts (Freeston & Ladouceur, 1997;Wegner & Zanakos, 1994).…”