Assessment and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in children

Childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder was believed to be very rare and, until quite recently, little effort was directed toward assessment or treatment. Today, typical assessment procedures include clinical and structured interviews, self-report and therapist or staff completed inventories, self-monitoring, and direct observation. No single method has demonstrated superiority, and each has had limitations. Multiple measures are therefore recommended. The treatment literature is composed largely of uncontrolled case studies presenting combinations of three or more treatments. Although all treatment-outcome reports illustrate positive effects, no one method has been superior treating either a single facet of the disorder or the disorder in its entirety.