Treatment of an adolescent with bowel movement phobia using self-control therapy

This report describes a self-control treatment of an adolescent with a highly unusual and severely debilitating phobia of having bowel movements in public. The treatment focused predominantly on helping the adolescent to modify his maladaptive thinking and also included role plays, graduated exposure, and homework assignments. Multimethod and multisource assessment data were collected as well as measures of social validity. Treatment gains were maintained at 3 and 6 months follow-up.