Wait-list Study of One-Week Intensive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Although cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective intervention for pediatric
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), many people do not receive CBT initially due, in part,
to the lack of trained providers and geographic barriers (e.g., distance to such providers).
Rather, the majority of youth with OCD receive psychiatric medication alone or together with
unproven forms of psychotherapy. While some serotonergic medications have demonstrated
utility in pediatric OCD, side effects can be common, response rates are modest at best, and
symptom remission is rare. Storch et al. have shown that CBT can be delivered effectively in
an intensive format over a 3-week time-span; however, even this shortened treatment approach
involves considerable time and financial expenditure for those who do not have local access
to CBT, including three week's time off from work and the cost of local room and board.
Given this, more efficient ways of providing CBT need to be identified and tested to
increase the number of people with access to this form of treatment. With this in mind, the
proposed feasibility study examines the use of videophone technology to evaluate a 5-day
cognitive-behavioral intervention for youth with OCD administered at multiple sites. A total
of 30 youth will receive 10 60-75-minute sessions of CBT over 5 days (two sessions a day).
Cognitive-behavioral therapy will be based on a demonstrated effective treatment protocol,
and adapted for administration over a one-week time-span. We will utilize a month-long
waitlist control to estimate treatment efficacy. Comprehensive assessments will be conducted
by trained clinicians at relevant time-points (i.e., baseline, post-waitlist,
post-treatment, follow-up) to assess symptom severity and impairment. Should supporting data
be found, CBT delivered in a 5-day format would have the potential to help many more
families who would otherwise remain untreated or inadequately treated.