First Published Tuesday, 30 June 2009
A Pilot Study of Telephone Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Young People
Turner C, Heyman I, Futh A, Lovell K.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK; Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK; University of Manchester, UK
Background: Cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) is the recommended psychological treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in young people. Access to CBT may be limited by a number of factors, including lack of trained therapists, and geographic or financial factors preventing access to a specialized service. Telephone delivery of CBT represents one way of overcoming some of these accessibility issues. This pilot study describes outcomes for a telephone-based cognitive-behavioural treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in young people.
Method: Ten participants, aged 13 to 17 years, and their parents received up to 16 sessions of telephone CBT (TCBT). Measures of OCD symptoms were obtained using multiple informants and a repeated measures design. Assessments were conducted at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and at 6- and 12-month follow-up.
Results: Improvements were found for OCD symptoms across all informants. Family satisfaction with treatment over the telephone was high.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that TCBT is a clinically effective, feasible and acceptable means of service delivery that offers the potential to make CBT a more accessible treatment for young people. TCBT requires further evaluation in randomized, controlled trials to compare effectiveness with face-to-face CBT, which currently represents the usual care model.
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