Obessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is frequently treatment-refractory and imposes a substantial burden on affected individuals. Although Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is widely regarded as the first-line intervention, its inherently distressing nature contributes to treatment refusal and premature dropout in a subset of patients. The present study aims to develop and validate a novel intervention, Mindfulness-Based Exposure Therapy (MBET).
In contrast to existing protocols that incorporate mindfulness as an adjunct to ERP and have yielded mixed or limited benefits, this study seeks a theoretically grounded integration of mindfulness and exposure-based principles. We hypothesize that mindfulness training improves emotion regulation, thereby producing a synergistic effect that enhances patients' capacity to engage in and complete exposure tasks.
From a clinical perspective, MBET is intended to offer a more tolerable and acceptable alternative to standard ERP, with the potential to improve treatment adherence and clinical outcomes among patients who experience traditional exposure procedures as excessively distressing.