Jonathan Abramowitz

Research areas and contributions

Treatment of OCD and anxiety

Abramowitz's research includes treatment outcome studies and meta-analytic reviews of exposure and response prevention (ERP), which is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) used to treat OCD. He has also investigated predictors of treatment outcomes.

Abramowitz has helped to develop an OCD treatment program combining ERP with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). He has also co-authored on couple-based cognitive behavioral treatment for OCD. He also examined applications extinction and inhibitory learning models to exposure therapy for OCD.

Nature and symptoms of OCD

Abramowitz's research also focuses on trying to understand the complex symptomatology of OCD. His work has identified 4 subtypes/dimensions of this disorder that involve somewhat distinct cognitive and behavioral phenomena: (a) contamination, (b) responsibility for harm/mistakes, (c) unacceptable thoughts, and (d) incompleteness/symmetry. He has also examined the classification of hoarding as symptom of OCD.

Abramowitz has argued that OCD symptoms lie on a continuum with everyday experiences. He co-authored a critical review of the DSM-5 classification of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (such as Hair Pulling Disorder and Skin Picking Disorder). He also published a critique of biomedical models of psychological disorders.

Assessment of OCD

Abramowitz led a team of researchers in 2010 that developed the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS), a 20-item self-report instrument designed to measure the severity of the four types of OCD symptoms. The DOCS has been translated into multiple languages for use worldwide.

In 2021, Abramowitz co-authored the development and evaluation of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-4 (OCI-4), a four-item version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, which intended for brief OCD screening. Subsequently, published online in 2024 and in a 2025 journal issue, he also co-authored a study that evaluated the OCI-4 during pregnancy and postpartum period.

Cognitive-behavioral factors

The cognitive-behavioral model is the leading conceptual approach to understanding OCD and anxiety disorders. Abramowitz conducts cross-sectional, experimental, and prospective (longitudinal) research that has helped to clarify and advance this conceptual model. His work focuses on cognitive biases such as anxiety sensitivity, thought-action fusion, intolerance of uncertainty, and attentional biases that factor in the persistence of OCD and irrational fear. With his team at UNC, he has developed experimental paradigms for studying thought-action fusion and intolerance of uncertainty. His work has also demonstrated that cognitive factors prospectively predict the escalation of intrusive thoughts into obsessions.

His longitudinal research has examined whether cognitive factors predict later obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

His Research has also addressed health/illness anxiety, shy bladder syndrome, panic disorder, and hoarding.

Scrupulosity

Abramowitz has conducted studies on, and developed a cognitive-behavioral model of, scrupulosity (religious obsessions and compulsions).

He also co-authored the development of the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS), a self-report measure of the religious obsessions and compulsions.

Perinatal and postpartum OCD

Abramowitz co-authored the development and evaluation of Baby PREP, cognitive behavioral prevention program for postpartum OCD symptoms in new parents. This work follows an earlier prospective research on cognitive factors associated with postpartum symptoms. Through a 2011 randomized controlled trial, the Baby PREP program was evaluated against a credible controlled intervention.

In a 2025 prospective study, Abramowitz and colleagues followed 256 women from pregnancy through six months postpartum to investigate whether prenatal obsessive belied predicted later obsessive-compulsive symptoms. After accounting for baseline symptoms and psychological distress, the study reported that stronger prenatal obsessive behaviors predicted greater and severe symptoms at six months postpartum.

Further, in 2026, Abramowitz co-authored a longitudinal study that examined prenatal obsessive-compulsive symptoms, depressive symptoms, maternal-partner relationship quality, and maternal-infant bonding.

Cross-cultural factors

Abramowitz has conducted research on cultural, religious, and racial differences in the expression of anxiety and OCD symptoms and related phenomena. He has participated in multinational studies of intrusive thoughts and the ways people interpret and respond to them.

Awards, recognition, and leadership

He is a Fellow and past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and serves on the International OCD Foundation Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board. He is the recipient of a Muhlenberg College Alumni Achievement Award, the David Shakow Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science and Practice of Clinical Psychology (from Division 12 of the American Psychological Association), and the Mayo Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology Outstanding Contributions to Research Award.

Abramowitz has served on the Editorial Boards of several scientific journals and as associate editor of Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy (2008–present) and associate editor of Behaviour Research and Therapy (2006-2015). He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. His ResearchGate score is higher than 97.5% of this site's members.

Abramowitz was invited by colleagues in Norway to help train and supervise 30 OCD treatment teams in that country. The training is part of an initiative funded by the Norwegian government to ensure that all individuals with OCD in Norway have access to effective treatment.

Abramowitz served as associate chair of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Psychology and Neuroscience from 2007 to 2017.