Effectiveness of One Videoconference-Based Exposure and Response Prevention Session at Home in Adjunction to Inpatient Treatment in Persons With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Nonrandomized Study

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Ulrich Voderholzer
  • Adrian Meule
  • Stefan Koch
  • Simone Pfeuffer
  • Netter Anna-Lena
  • Dirk Lehr
  • Eva Maria Zisler

Background: Therapist-guided exposure and response prevention (ERP) for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is frequently conducted within clinical settings but rarely at places where patients are usually confronted with OCD symptom-provoking situations in daily life (eg, at home). Objective: This study aimed to investigate patients’ views on 1 ERP session at home via videoconference and its impact on treatment outcome. Methods: A total of 64 inpatients with OCD received 1 session of therapist-guided videoconference-based ERP at home in adjunction to a multimodal inpatient treatment between 2015 and 2020. Results: Compared with 64 age- and sex-matched controls who received a multimodal inpatient treatment without 1 session of videoconference-based ERP at home, patients who received 1 session of videoconference-based ERP in adjunction to a multimodal inpatient treatment showed stronger reductions in OCD symptom severity from admission to discharge. Before the videoconference-based ERP session, patients reported high rationale credibility and treatment expectancy. After the videoconference-based ERP session, patients reported medium-to-high positive mood as well as depth and smoothness of the session, and they perceived the working alliance as high. Conclusions: Results highlight the importance of administering therapist-guided ERP sessions in patients’ natural environment to enhance treatment response in OCD. Videoconference-based ERP as add-on to treatment as usual is, therefore, a promising approach to facilitate the application of ERP in patients’ natural environment and foster the generalization of ERP conducted in clinical settings.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere52790
JournalJMIR Mental Health
Volume11
Issue number1
Number of pages12
ISSN2368-7959
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13.03.2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 JMIR Publications Inc.. All rights reserved.

    Research areas

  • clinical setting, environment, exposure, inpatient, mood, obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, positive mood, prevention, response prevention, therapist, therapists, therapy, video, videoconference, videoconference-based treatment
  • Psychology

DOI