A recent study published in Child and Adolescent Mental Health found both Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and CBT in combination with medication to be effective in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in children. During a ten-year period, 75 children were evaluated and treated for OCD in an outpatient setting. Investigators later contacted a subset of that sample to investigate the long-term maintenance of their therapeutic gains. Treatment groups in this follow up investigation included, (1) those treated with medication before beginning CBT, (2) those treated with CBT only, and (3) those treated with CBT and medication, simultaneously. Participants in each group had all met diagnostic criteria for OCD as determined by their Children’s Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CYBOCS) scores. Long term maintenance was assessed by comparing post-treatment and pre-treatment CYBOCS scores. Results showed significant improvement for each group, yielding further support for the use of CBT and CBT plus medication (SSRIs) in the treatment of OCD.
Reference
Nakatani, E. (2009). Outcomes of cognitive behaviour therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder in a clinical setting: A 10-year experience from a specialist OCD service for children and adolescents. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 14, 133-139.