Office-based vs home-based behavioral treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder: a preliminary study

The current study investigated whether exposure with response prevention (ERP) for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is more effective when administered in a participant's home or other natural environments where symptoms tend to occur, than in a therapist's office. Twenty-eight outpatients with a principal diagnosis of OCD were randomly assigned to receive ERP in their therapist's office vs. wherever their symptoms usually occur (e.g., at home, at work, in public places, in the car, etc.). Participants received 14, 90-min sessions of ERP with an individual therapist. Participants were assessed at pretreatment, post-treatment, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Assessments included both self-report as well as clinician-rated indicators of OCD symptom severity, depression, and functional impairment. Results suggested that participants improved significantly, regardless of where treatment occurred. There were no differences in efficacy between the home-based and office-based treatment for OCD. Implications of these findings are discussed.