The majority of "responders" to first-line cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and pharmacological treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are left with residual symptoms that are clinically relevant and disabling. Therefore, there is pressing need for widely accessible efficacious alternative and/or adjunctive treatments for OCD. Accumulating evidence suggests that physical exercise may be one such intervention in the mood and anxiety disorders broadly, although we are aware of only two positive small-scale pilot studies that have tested its clinical benefits in OCD. This pilot study aimed to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of adding a structured physical exercise programme to CBT for OCD. A standard CBT group was delivered concurrently with a 12-week customized exercise programme to 11 participants. The exercise regimen was individualized for each participant based on peak heart rate measured using an incremental maximal exercise test. Reports of exercise adherence across the 12-week regimen exceeded 80%. A paired-samples t-test indicated very large treatment effects in Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale scores from pre- to post-treatment in CBT group cohorts led by expert CBT OCD specialists (d = 2.55) and junior CBT clinician non-OCD specialists (d = 2.12). These treatment effects are very large and exceed effects typically observed with individual and group-based CBT for OCD based on leading meta-analytic reviews, as well as previously obtained treatment effects for CBT using the same recruitment protocol without exercise. As such, this pilot work demonstrates the feasibility and significant potential clinical utility of a 12-week aerobic exercise programme delivered in conjunction with CBT for OCD.

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This paper examines explanatory mechanisms of differences, in both positive and negative aspects of children's adjustment, between ethnic minority (i.e., Former Soviet Union-FSU origin) and ethnic majority (i.e., Israeli) children living in Israel. Seventy Israeli children (40 girls) and 75 FSU origin children (38 girls) and their parents constituted the study sample. Both mothers and fathers reported on the children's prosocial and externalizing behaviours and provided accounts of their use of corporal punishment. Analyses showed that FSU origin children displayed lower levels of prosocial behaviour as well as higher levels of externalizing problems and that their parents used more corporal punishment than their Israeli counterparts. In addition, a mediation model was determined in which both maternal and paternal use of corporal punishment mediated the link between ethnicity and the child's prosocial behaviour. Furthermore, according to the best fitting structural equation model, ethnicity did not have a direct effect on children's prosocial behaviour. This link was fully mediated by maternal and paternal corporal punishment. No mediation was revealed for the links between ethnicity and externalizing problems. The process of risk is discussed.