The Effect of Time Perspective Therapy on Severity of Obsession and Compulsion Symptoms

Introduction: Limitations of exposure therapies for reducing the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms have caused to attention new non-exposure therapies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of time perspective therapy on severity of obsession and compulsion symptoms.
Method: The research design was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The study sample consisted of 30 patients who received DSM-V criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder and they didn't have diagnosis of psychotic and bipolar mood disorder. They selected by accessible method from 3 psychiatric and psychological services centers of Isfahan in 2013. Participants randomly assigned in 2 groups. The plan include an independent variable in 2 levels: 1-time perspective therapy and 2-waiting list. Instrument was Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale that used to measure the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
Results: Results from multivariate analysis of covariate showed that time perspective therapy was the effective therapy to reduce the severity of obsession symptoms, but this effect was not consistent. Furthermore, this therapy wasn't effective on reducing severity of compulsion symptoms (P> 0. 01).
Conclusion: Results showed that time perspective therapy can be used for reducing severity of obsessions symptoms, but it wasn't effective on severity of compulsion symptoms. By modifying this method, time perspective therapy can be used as a new non-exposure therapy for reducing severity of compulsive- compulsive symptoms.