Original articleCognitive Behavioral Treatment for Young Children With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Section snippets
CBT for Children and Adolescents With OCD: Review of Findings
Research on CBT and, in particular, exposure with response prevention has only recently been carefully reviewed and studied in children and adolescents (March 1995, Piacentini 1999). To identify CBT studies for the quantitative review, searches of major research literature databases relevant to OCD (i.e., Medline, PsychLit) were conducted with the key words: [OCD or obsessive compulsive disorder] AND [treatment, CBT, family CBT, intervention, or trial]. Studies were limited to clients between 5
Qualitative Review
Upon inspecting the studies listed in Table 1, three major gaps with particular relevance for young child OCD are evident: age of participants, the role of medication in the context of CBT, and the use of family-based models of treatment of OCD. With regard to age, no treatment studies have examined treatment of children with OCD who are younger than 7 years old. As seen in Table 1, research has focused on treatment of children between the ages of 7 and 18, with the average age of participants
Quantitative Review
To be included in the quantitative review, certain general study criteria were required. All studies were required to be written in or have a translation available in English. Both published (e.g., peer and non-peer reviewed journals) and non-published (e.g., theses, conference presentations) studies could be included in the review. In the event of multiple studies reporting on the same sample and dependent variables, the one with the largest sample size was included.
All studies were required
Future Directions to Solidify the Empirical Base
Although this review of the existing literature indicates great promise for CBT as a treatment for pediatric OCD, there are notable issues in the literature that could shape future research. As can be noted from the quantitative review, there is a dearth of studies examining CBT’s true effect, as opposed to CBT delivered in the context of other treatment, such as medication. Unfortunately, the majority of studies on which the supportive evidence of CBT is based might be contaminated by
Summary and Conclusions
This article has presented a critical review of the extant evidence of CBT efficacy in youth with OCD, with a specific focus on how this literature might inform the clinician with a very young OCD patient. A meta-analysis of the existing literature indicates great promise for CBT as a treatment for children and adolescents with OCD, with preliminary evidence suggesting that individual and family-based CBT trials seem to be the most promising.
There are specific gaps in the current research that
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