A UA professor researching treatment methods for obsessive-compulsive disorder using smartphone apps will be giving a talk on the anxiety disorder today. Cary Jordan, an expert in the treatment of OCD and a UA professor at the College of Education, will be speaking at the college at 5:30 p.m. in Room 318 specifically about pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Jordan has successfully treated OCD in adults and children and said the response rate has been 85 percent or above for the patients he has treated. 

Michelle Perfect, an associate professor and interim program director of the psychology program, said “nearly 20 percent of school age students experience significant social, emotional or behavior difficulties that impact their ability to learn.”

Jordan has been treating OCD since 2007 and said the goal of the pediatric OCD lecture is to “build awareness in the community with regards to what is OCD and what is the evidence-based effective treatment.”

Perfect’s research is focused on the relationship between physical and mental health, and particularly the impact of sleep and other chronic illnesses on mental health and education.  

“Despite the high prevalence, up to 80 percent of youth do not receive services,” Perfect said. 

Perfect added that the lecture is meant to provide trainees and practitioners with knowledge about cutting-edge research-based treatment for OCD. 

“I think the overuse of OCD has maybe drawn attention away from what it is really like to have OCD and how impairing this disorder can be for those diagnosed,” Jordan said. 

Jordan said the symptoms of OCD have different degrees of severity and, if left untreated, can consume an individual’s entire life. 

“Even moderate levels of symptom impairment can be very impairing,” Jordan said. 

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