Expanding the outreach of psychological interventions for young people who struggle with obsessions and compulsions

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric disorder that is associated with high functional impairment, increased mortality risk and a high economic burden for society.

Since the typical onset is during childhood, and time from symptom onset to receiving treatment is generally long, new innovative and flexible ways to intervene at an early stage is needed.

We have previously shown that internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) is as effective as in-person treatment when delivered in a stepped-care format for children and adolescents with OCD but using less therapist resources.

The proposed project would build upon our previous experience and expand the outreach of psychological interventions for young people who struggle with obsessions and compulsions.

We will first investigate the long-term effects of the stepped-care approach two years after treatment completion, and also analyse if it possible to predict high-risk individuals in an early phase of the treatment. The results from this part of the project will inform more effective treatment selection and stratification.

Secondly, we will expand our ICBT approach and test it for youths with OCD who also are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Clinically, children with ASD are a particularly important population to reach and offer evidence-based psychological interventions.

Thirdly, we will investigate if it is feasible to deliver an online prevention programme to parents who have children at risk of developing OCD.