Medication May Be Equivalent to Psychotherapy in OCD

Serotonergic antidepressants, as well as psychotherapy with cognitive and behavioral elements, are effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A small number of direct comparisons have suggested that psychotherapy may be superior to medications. Now, British researchers have conducted a meta-analysis of 54 studies conducted over 33 years and used common comparators to make indirect comparisons between treatments.

All treatments were superior to drug placebo. Among medications, clomipramine had a larger effect than selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), but the difference was not significant. Among psychotherapies, cognitive-behavioral therapy was less effective than pure cognitive or behavioral therapy, but the th…