Rogers Memorial Hospital

Rogers Memorial is one of the few places in the country that offers intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy services in a residential setting for children, teens and adults. Clinical Director Bradley C. Riemann, PhD, a leading expert in the assessment, treatment and research of anxiety disorders, directs a team of more than 40 highly trained staff who provide this specialized treatment. David Jacobi, PhD, provides clinical supervision to the pediatric residential patients.

At Rogers Memorial, many of the treatment plans for patients with OCD and other anxiety disorders are based on a strict use of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in combination with medication. This approach is consistent with a study published by The New England Journal of Medicine in 2008 that showed that a combination of pharmacological and CBT approaches has a far greater impact on symptom reduction that either approach administered alone.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Defined

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a type of treatment based on research findings that provide individuals with the necessary skills to address dysfunctional thoughts and change avoidant behaviors.

• The cognitive component helps reduce anxiety by helping to identify and ultimately correct errors in thinking. One type of error commonly made by people with anxiety disorders is called an overestimation error, where an individual overestimates the likelihood of a bad event occurring. Another type of error made is a catastrophe error. In this case, an individual magnifies or blows out of proportion the seriousness of an event. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps challenge these errors in thinking.

• The behavior component gradually and repeatedly exposes individuals to situations, objects and ideas that cause anxiety. Through the use of a graduated hierarchy of repeated and lengthened exposures, individuals learn that their anxiety will decrease by itself. This process of anxiety reduction is called habituation.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Effectiveness

According to Dr. Riemann, there are two key points that differentiate the hospital’s OCD and anxiety disorder services:

1. The development of each patient’s treatment hierarchy is very thorough and taps into every aspect of the individual’s phobic avoidance.
2. Our emphasis on the graduated nature of exposures increases compliance and helps to reduce refusal /drop out rates.

Outcome data of CBT treatment done at Rogers Memorial shows that up to 80% of the people who complete our CBT program significantly reduce their anxiety symptoms from a severe to a much more manageable level.