Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Clin. Psychol. Psychother. 16, 463–465 (2009) Published online 19 July 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/cpp.621 Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Book Review DIRT—Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy for Obsessive–Compulsive Washers: A Comprehensive Guide to Treatment Danger ideation reduction therapy (DIRT) for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a new intervention focusing on providing correc- tive information, and is the subject of a new comprehensive guide to treatment for compulsive washing. The components of DIRT are well presented in this manual-based treatment and the documenta- tion includes dialogues, filmed interviews with workers in danger- ous occupations, and fact sheets to persuade the client to exchange beliefs about danger for beliefs about safety. The book is well orga- nized and user friendly. Clinical trials have shown DIRT to be an effective treatment. Although DIRT as a stand alone therapy seems to offer some advantages over conventional CBT, it may function currently more as an adjunct to help cognitive restructuring. DIRT certainly encourages us to rethink some assumptions about the use of corrective information in treating OCD. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message: • Danger ideation therapy is principally a cognitive approach. • Corrective information may help in the treatment of OCD for washing. • The application of DIRT in other types of OCD and symbolic con- tamination remains uncertain. Keywords: Danger, Obsessional beliefs, Contamination, Corrective information New effective treatments for obsessive–compul- sive disorder (OCD) are always welcome. Danger ideation reduction therapy (DIRT) is a novel inter- vention for treating OCD, principally washing compulsions, developed over the last 10 years by Ross Menzies and colleagues working at Univer- sity of Sydney, Australia. The current (St Clare et al., 2008) guide is the first clinician manual for DIRT. DIRT is a multi- component package made up of six principal treatment components: attentional (re)focusing, cognitive restructuring, corrective information, microbiological experiments, filmed interviews and addressing catastrophe estimation. There are separate chapters on each of the six components which come complete with dialogue, exercises and corrective information. The guide is well organized and user friendly. Not all components of DIRT are novel, but the presentation, for example of the well-trodden links between thoughts, emotions and behaviours, is very clear and straightforward, as are more conventional cognitive strategies for reducing threat estimation such as probability cal- culation. The newer element is cognitive correc- tion and involves informing the person through facts, dialogue and first-hand experiences on the reality of their beliefs. Someone, for example, believing he could catch AIDS from shaking hands would receive not only detailed informa- tion on how one could catch AIDS, but informa- tion in direct contradiction to their beliefs. The corrective information is provided on fact sheets about all aspects of contamination fear, e.g., the immune system, waste products, illnesses, micro- biology. There are also reports of microbiologi- cal experiments debunking contamination. Client