AUTHOR=Pajak Rosanna , Kamboj Sunjeev K. 

TITLE=Experimental Single-Session Imagery Rescripting of Distressing Memories in Bowel/Bladder-Control Anxiety: A Case Series

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2014

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00182

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00182

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Bowel and bladder obsession (bowel/bladder-control anxiety; BBCA) is a viscerally-centred phobic syndrome involving a specific concern about losing control of bowel or bladder functioning in a public place. Like other anxiety disorders, BBCA is characterised by intrusive imagery. We have previously described the nature of intrusive mental imagery in bowel/bladder-control anxiety and found imagery themes to be linked to actual experiences of loss of control or to ‘near misses’. A causal role for imagery in symptom maintenance can be inferred by examining the effects of imagery rescripting. Moreover, successful rescripting may point to a potentially efficacious avenue for treatment development.Three cases of imagery rescripting are described here with pre-, post- and follow-up (one week) data reported. After rescripting ,two participants experienced pronounced reductions in imagery vividness, distress, shame, disgust and belief conviction. Most importantly, all three participants experienced a reduction in fear-associated bladder and/or bowel sensations. The results support a causal role for mental imagery in bowel-bladder-control anxiety and suggest that rescripting of distressing intrusive memories linked to recurrent images may be a useful avenue for development of cognitive-behavioral treatments of bladder/bowel-control anxiety.