Efficacy of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy in patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• Applicants: Dr. Anne Katrin Külz; Professor Dr. Steffen Moritz
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 253075487

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure and response prevention (ERP) represents the fist linetreatment for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).However, up to 40% of the patients do not show response in terms of at least a 35% reduction of symptom severity. Recent research hints at efficacy of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in affectivedisorders and some anxiety disorders. An open pilot study by our research group recently showed that MBCT is feasible in patients with OCD and suggested that the program might be effective in reducing OCDsymptoms.We now aim at systematically evaluating MBCT as a treatment option for patients with no or partial response to CBT with ERP, hypothesizing a significant reduction of remaining symptoms compared to an active controlcondition. In a prospective, bicentric, assessor-blinded, randomized, active control phase II clinical trial participants with OCD who remained symptomatic after disorder specific CBT with ERP will be randomly assigned to either 8 sessions of MBCT or a psycho-educative program (OCD-EP) conducted in an outpatient group setting. Based on a power analysis, we target a sample size of 128 participants. OCD severity as measured by the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale represents the primary outcome.The long-term goal of this line of research is to provide a new complementary treatment option for patients with OCD who do not sufficiently benefit from CBT with ERP or who experience difficulties in engaging themselvesin this kind of treatment .

• DFG Programme: Research Grants