CONCEPTUALIZATION AND TREATMENT OF BOWEL OBSESSIONS - 2 CASE-REPORTS

Bowel obsessions have long been recognized in clinical settings, usual ly presenting as an overwhelming fear of losing bowel control in publi c. Conceptual issues with regard to this disorder have hampered treatm ent efforts. For example, disagreement exists as to its proper classif ication within the spectrum of anxiety disorders: it has been conceptu alized bath as a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder and as a sym ptom of social phobia, panic disorder, and agoraphobia. In addition, t he comorbidity of bowel obsessions and functional bowel disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome is not understood. While reports of pharm acological intervention exist, little has been written about psycholog ical treatment techniques. This paper uses two cases studies of succes sful behavioral treatment of bowel obsessions as illustrations to addr ess the above issues. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.