[Treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: drugs, psychotherapy or combined treatments?]

Abstract

Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) are first-line treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, little is known concerning whether combining both treatments ab initio is more effective than either monotherapy alone. A review of the available literature, which is poor, shows that combining ab initio CBT and SRI has not been found to be clearly superior of either therapy alone, except for patients with severe depression (who could be treated effectively with pharmacotherapy alone) and for children and adolescents. Another promising area of research is combined sequential treatment, that is the addition of CBT in subjects not responding to SRIs alone. More research is clearly needed in order to achieve a personalized treatment plan for every OCD patient.