Case study: Exposure and response prevention for an adolescent with Tourette's syndrome and OCD

Using recently refined diagnostic criteria, the authors hypothesized that t he frequent touching of others by a 16-year-old male adolescent with Touret te's syndrome was a compulsion and not a tic. Consistent with the study's h ypothesis, the authors applied exposure and response prevention, a procedur e empirically supported for treatment of compulsions but not for ties, to t he touching. Results showed a significant decrease in touching attempts, ov ert anxiety, and subjective anxiety across time.