Imagery Rehearsal Therapy as a Treatment for Obsessive-compulsive Disorder: A Narrative Review

This article takes a theoretical look at the possible connections between the treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and the treatment for another psychiatric disorder posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).It compares the dream patterns between OCD people and neurotypical people, explores how exposure and response prevention (ERP) impacts the dreams of OCD people, and hypothesizes a novel therapeutic approach involving imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) that is approved to treat people with PTSD to treat people with OCD.