Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jul 7:16:220.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-016-0914-6.

Change in obsessive beliefs as predictor and mediator of symptom change during treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder - a process-outcome study

Alice Diedrich  1 , Philipp Sckopke  2 , Caroline Schwartz  3 , Sandra Schlegl  3 , Bernhard Osen  4 , Christian Stierle  4 , Ulrich Voderholzer  5   6
Affiliations

Change in obsessive beliefs as predictor and mediator of symptom change during treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder - a process-outcome study

Alice Diedrich et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder suggest that changes in obsessive beliefs are a key mechanism of treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thus, in the present process-outcome study, we tested whether changes in obsessive beliefs during a primarily cognitive behavioral inpatient treatment predicted treatment outcome and whether these changes mediated symptom changes over the course of treatment.

Methods: Seventy-one consecutively admitted inpatients with obsessive-compulsive disorder were assessed with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire at treatment intake, after six weeks of treatment and at discharge, and with the Beck-Depression-Inventory-II at intake and discharge.

Results: Changes in obsessive beliefs during the first six weeks of treatment predicted obsessive-compulsive symptoms at discharge when controlling for obsessive-compulsive and depressive symptoms at intake in a hierarchical regression analysis. Multilevel mediation analyses showed that reductions in obsessive beliefs partially mediated improvements in obsessive-compulsive symptoms over time.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that decreasing obsessive beliefs in inpatient cognitive behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder might be a promising treatment approach.

Keywords: Change mechanism; Cognitive behavioral therapy; Inpatient treatment; Mediator; Obsessive beliefs; Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of the sample. The described percentages refer to the sample size reported before
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mediation model with obsessive beliefs as mediator between time of measurement and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. N = 71. The unstandardized regression coefficients are presented. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000.
    1. Ayuso-Mateos JL. Global burden of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the year 2000. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2000.
    1. Eisen JL, Pinto A, Mancebo MC, Dyck IR, Orlando ME, Rasmussen SA. A 2-year prospective follow-up study of the course of obsessive-compulsive disorder. J Clin Psychiat. 2010;71:1033–1039. doi: 10.4088/JCP.08m04806blu. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hofmeijer-Sevink MK, Van Oppen P, Van Megen HJ, Batelaan NM, Cath DC, Van Der Wee NJA, et al. Clinical relevance of comorbidity in obsessive compulsive disorder: The Netherlands OCD Association study. J Affect Disord. 2013;150:847–854. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2013.03.014. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Huppert JD, Simpson HB, Nissenson KJ, Liebowitz MR, Foa EB. Quality of life and functional impairment in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A comparison of patients with and without comorbidity, patients in remission, and healthy controls. Depress Anxiety. 2009;26:39–45. doi: 10.1002/da.20506. - DOI - PMC - PubMed