A Comparative Review of Evidence-Based Treatments for Adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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Authors
Morin, Michelle
Issue Date
2025-05
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
obsessive compulsive disorder , exposure and response prevention , metacognitive therapy , acceptance and commitment therapy , cognitive therapy , evidence-based practice , treatment failure , treatment outcome
Alternative Title
Abstract
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a highly distressing psychiatric disorder that has significant impact on quality of life and increased risk for suicide. Presentations of this disorder include repetitive obsessive thoughts and images of personally distressing content, and mental or behavioural compulsions. This disorder is estimated to affect up to 4% of the general population. Current treatment guidelines advise the use of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) as the first line treatment, with more severe OCD cases recommended for inpatient administration of behavioural therapies. However, there exists people with OCD who do not benefit solely from behavioural therapies due to several factors including accessibility, tolerability and poor treatment response. This paper provides a comparative analysis of evidenced-based interventions for adults with OCD, with a focus on ERP, Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This analysis synthesizes results from randomized controlled trials exploring treatment effectiveness within evidence-based psychotherapies and discusses mechanisms of change within each modality. The findings support that MCT and ACT may offer viable alternatives to ERP and emphasize future research directions to determine which client characteristics may be moderating treatment response.
Description
Citation
Publisher
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
openAccess
openAccess