The Case for Group Therapy for OCD How Effective Is it?
In a previous article, we focused on trying to dispel common myths and perceived concerns about group therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which is a common, usually long-standing, and debilitating mental health problem that tends to vary from person to person and consists of: (1) obsessions, defined as persistent intrusive, unwanted, and difficult to control thoughts, images, or urges relating to harm/danger, contamination, sex, religion, need for symmetry, and (2) compulsions or rituals, which are acts that are repeated either physically or mentally including cleaning/washing, checking, counting, ordering, and many other repetitive behaviours. The currently recommended psychological treatment for OCD is a specific type of cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT), which helps individuals with OCD change the unhelpful patterns of thinking and coping behaviours that keep the problem going.
CBT for OCD has the highest degree of scientific support and whether this therapy is accessed on a one-to-one basis or in a group it does not affect the result. Therefore, despite some beliefs that people may have about benefitting more from individual CBT, the research has shown that this is not the case; group CBT is as effective as individual CBT. So, how effective is this group CBT for OCD? In a recent large-scale, real-world study conducted by the clinical team at Asto Clinics, it was found that between 64% and 86% of individuals with OCD who had participated in group therapy improved significantly after the 12-week treatment programme. The study also found that a new type of psychological treatment for OCD, called metacognitive therapy, that was introduced into the 12-week treatment programme had led to more participants improving. These results are comparable to the best results reported in previous scientific studies.
There were also some other important results to note about these group therapies. One particular aspect was the proportion of participants completing the 12-week treatment programme. This may seem irrelevant to most people because after all everyone is keen to get better and get rid of their OCD. Whilst this is the case, it is important to highlight that for a significant number of individuals receiving therapy for OCD, this form of treatment may be perceived as aversive although this is clearly not what is actually intended. That is why studies have shown that up to 32% of people attending therapy for OCD tend to drop out at some point before completing the intervention and gaining the full benefits. The large-scale study that was conducted by the Asto clinical team found that only up to 9% of their group therapy participants had dropped out and that those who did complete the 12-week treatment programme were 95% likely to recommend it to someone else with similar OCD.
Asto Clinics is a UK charity that was established by Steve Turnock who used to have long-standing OCD but managed to overcome it after attending a specific course of group CBT. The charity is dedicated to providing effective virtual group CBT for individuals with OCD. If you or someone you know is experiencing OCD, please make contact using one of the methods on our contact us page.. We are here to help.
