NOCD Review

This pilot study wanted to investigate whether offering an integrated treatment with brief in-person therapy accompanied with a mobile application (NOCD, previously nOCD) would be a way to increase access to obsessive-compulsive disorder treatment. 33 participants were enrolled into this 8 week open trial. The integrated treatment programs consisted of 3 to 5 in person meetings that were followed by weekly phone calls by NOCD. Participants were evaluated through trained raters and self-report measures at baseline, mid treatment, post treatment and 2 month follow up. The primary outcome was the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Of the 33 participants 14 (42%) responded to the treatment and 8 (24%) gained milder symptoms. The 2 month (n = 20) follow up revealed 7 (35%) met the criteria for treatment response and 3 (15%) met the criteria for treatment remission. (Hong, Sanchez, & Comer. 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005789420300666)

The research wanted to examine treatment outcomes in a large naturalistic sample of participants with a main OCD diagnosis who received NOCD treatment from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. 3552 adults participated in a twice-weekly, live, face-to-face teletherapy exposure and response prevention (ERP) for 3 weeks, followed by 6 weeks of once-weekly brief video teletherapy check-ins for 30 minutes. Assessments of the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) were conducted when the study started, after the 3 weeks of twice-weekly sessions, and at the end of the 6 weeks of check-ins. The participants also received longitudinal assessments of DOCS 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after the end of the 6-week check-ins. The treatment resulted in significant improvements. Patients with OCD, treated by NOCD treatment using ERP, had OCD symptoms reduced by 43.4%. (Feusner et al., 2022. doi:10.2196/36431)