The resulting anxiety then is managed by training children to use strategies that help them work with their anxiety in a more effective and less disruptive way.

Anxiety management techniques may include relaxation training, distraction, or imagery. Often, OCD is personified as something that makes the child perform an action. Thus, children learn to assess situations and ask themselves if they really want to do something, as opposed to the perception that the OCD is making them do something. With cognitive behavioral therapy, the initial goals are specific to one or two behaviors. However, as the patient becomes successful in coping with these situations, generalization usually occurs to other symptoms that have not been targeted. Usually, the patient reports an overall reduction in obsessive thoughts, general anxiety, and the need to perform certain actions.

Treatment of OCD in adults has demonstrated that medications are effective, and the existing studies of...
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