Efficacy of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy for youth anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Pediatrician-friendly perspectives on cognitive behavioral therapy for anxious youth: Current status and clinical implications for the next normal

“…Approximately 88% of the strongest studies evaluating treatment outcome for anxiety disorders in youth incorporated exposure in their intervention protocol[ 46 ]. When exposure elements were absent from CBT treatment approaches for anxiety, the effects were significantly attenuated[ 42 , 49 , 51 ]. In a meta-analysis focusing on dismantling the effective components of CBT for anxiety disorders in youth that included 75 studies, in-session exposure resulted in larger effect sizes when comparing CBT to wait-list control groups[ 41 ].…”

Obsessive-compulsive disorder misdiagnosis among mental healthcare providers in Latin America

“…OCD symptoms are often grouped into four factor analytically derived dimensions: symmetry obsessions and ordering/arranging/counting compulsions, contamination obsessions and hygiene compulsions, obsessions about doubt/harm and checking compulsions, and taboo-related obsessions and compulsions (themes of violence, sex, religion), with many studies finding that the doubt/harm and taboo thoughts categories are more appropriately characterized by a single factor (e.g., Stewart et al, 2008;Bloch et al, 2008). Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure and response presentation (ERP) and serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) are evidence-based treatments that provide clinically significant symptom relief for the majority of people with OCD (Bergez et al, 2020;Öst et al, 2016). Unfortunately, individuals with OCD often experience a significant delay between onset and initiating evidence-based treatment, with a mean delay between onset and any treatment ranging between 10 and 17 years in the United States (see García Soriano et al, 2014 for a review).…”