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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU Researcher Spotlight: Anxiety Treatment, OCD and Related Disorders
Jedidiah Siev, Ph.D.
Jedidiah Siev, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Nova Southeastern University’s College of Psychology and is the Director of NSU’s Anxiety Treatment Center (ATC) and OCD and Related Disorders (NORD) Program. Siev completed a post-doctoral fellowship and pre-doctoral internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, following doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania.
Siev’s research focuses on information processing, judgment and decision making, and meta-cognitive processes involved in the maintenance and reduction of OCD and anxiety symptoms. While at MGH, Siev received a research grant from the International OCD Foundation to study scrupulosity, an OCD presentation characterized by religious or moral fears. As a clinician, Siev has considerable experience working with individuals who have OCD, anxiety disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, and tic disorders.
Siev was also working on research in the area of OCD, thanks to a grant from the International OCD Foundation. In addition, through an NSU grant*, he is researching dental anxiety in patients.
In his research related to the International OCD grant, Siev examined the psychopathology of scrupulosity (presence of religious obsessions) with a particular focus on attention bias and response inhibition, and evaluated the effect of a pilot, experimental training session with this population. In particular, he recruited participants with scrupulous OCD, contamination-related OCD, and healthy controls. Participants completed a battery of clinical assessments and then completed computerized attention tasks.
Other areas Siev studies includes, but are not limited to:
- Sexual obsessions in OCD;
- decision-making styles among individuals with OCD and hoarding;
- the relationship between moral guilt and physical cleansing; and
- theory of mind and body dysmorphic disorder.
*Funding for this project was provided through the Nova Southeastern University President’s Faculty Research and Development Grant No.335906 ($9,952).