Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involves intrusive thoughts, images, urges or doubts alongside compulsive behaviours or mental acts. Although commonly associated with contamination or checking, OCD can take many forms and is best understood in terms of the processes maintaining an individual’s symptoms.
Dr. Patel’s clinical approach is grounded in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), an evidence-based psychological intervention for OCD. ERP is individually formulated, drawing where appropriate on inhibitory learning principles to inform how exposures are designed and how compulsive responses are reduced.
His clinical and research interests include understanding why some individuals respond incompletely to established interventions, and how emerging research into learning and memory may inform future psychological approaches.
OCD can also overlap with Tic Disorders, particularly where repetitive behaviours are associated with premonitory urges, sensory incompleteness or “not just right” experiences. This overlap is a particular area of Dr. Patel’s clinical and research interest, including presentations sometimes described as Tourettic Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Individuals experiencing OCD, including presentations involving overlapping tic or sensory phenomena, are welcome to get in touch to discuss whether an assessment or psychological intervention may be appropriate.
