Metacognitive Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Several authors have suggested that not only appraisal of significance of external events and signals from the body, but also appraisal of the personal significance of thoughts are important, and emphasized the conceptual limitations of the schema approach in cognitive model and developed the integrative information processing model of emotional disorders. According to this approach, the assessment of the meaning of thought, rather than thought itself is more important in the development and maintenance of the psychopathology. In the metacognitive model of obsessive compulsive disorder, three types of metacognitive beliefs are emphasized. These are; thought-action fusion (thought-action, thought-event, thought-object), metacognitive beliefs on performing the rituals and metacognitive beliefs on the warning to stop to terminate the rituals. According to the model, targeting directly to change in metacognitive beliefs will increase success in therapy. In this article, the concept of metacognition in emotional disorders, the metacognitive model of obsessive compulsive disorder and the advances that the model introduced in conceptualization and treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder have been discussed.