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Evidence summaries

Psychological Treatments for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Psychological treatments derived from cognitive behavioural models appear to be an effective treatment for adult patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Level of evidence: "B"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 8 studies with a total of 266 subjects. These studies demonstrated that patients receiving any variant of cognitive behavioural treatment exhibited significantly fewer symptoms post-treatment than those receiving treatment as usual (SMD -1.24, 95% CI -1.61 to -0.87, I² test for heterogeneity 33.4%). Different types of cognitive and/or behavioural treatments showed similar differences in effect when compared with treatment as usual. The overall treatment effect appeared to be influenced by differences in baseline severity.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality; inadequate or unclear allocation concealment.

References

Primary/Secondary Keywords