Objective and subjective improvement after a new form of cognitive and behavioral therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder patients

IntroductionCognitive and Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the two treatments recognized as most efficient to improve Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms.ObjectivesThe major aim of this study is to facilitate CBT for OCD checkers. To this purpose, we developed a new psycho-pedagogic tool to be used during CBT sessions and assessed its objective efficacy and the patients’ perception of their therapy.MethodologyExperimental CBT sessions included a “checking task”, composed of a “matching task” followed by a “checking phase” during which subjects were given the opportunity to check or to confirm their prior answer. This tool was appended to a classical CBT (as described in the literature).30 OCD patients with checking compulsions each followed 15 individual CBT sessions with a psychologist. They were randomized in two groups: a “reference CBT” (CBT classically described in literature) and an “experimental CBT” (reference CBT + checking task) group. Symptom severity was assessed by the Y-BOCS and CGI at three main stages of the therapies: before, at half-therapy, at the end of therapy and 6 months later. Assessment was performed blindly by an expert psychologist to avoid any bias, and the patients’ impressions were collected at the same time.ResultsAt the end of therapies, symptom severity decreased significantly (24.08 to 12.5) and participants had a better global functioning, especially in their social and familial lives.ConclusionsBoth CBT offer an important clinical improvement of OCD symptoms. Patients and psychologists expressed their satisfaction at having participated to the study.