Patient preferences for obsessive-compulsive disorder treatment

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Health Economics
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental health condition.
• Understanding patient preferences is crucial for effective treatment selection and adherence.
• Current mainstream treatments include serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) and exposure and response prevention (EX/RP).

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore treatment preferences among individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• To investigate preferences for both existing and novel OCD treatments.
• To test the hypothesis that a combination of medication and psychotherapy would be the most preferred treatment option.

Main Methods:

• A treatment-preference survey was administered to 89 individuals with OCD via telephone.
• The survey employed health economics methods, including forced-choice and contingent-ranking techniques.
• Participants were asked about preferences for mainstream (SRI, EX/RP, combination) and novel treatments.

Main Results:

• A majority of participants preferred combination treatment (43%) or EX/RP (42%) over SRI medication (16%).
• Investigational psychotherapy was the most preferred novel treatment (48%), while deep brain stimulation was the least preferred (77%).
• Qualitative data indicated that prior experience, medication concerns, and practicalities influenced preferences.

Conclusions:

• Patients with OCD exhibit distinct and identifiable treatment preferences.
• Combination therapy and psychotherapy were the most favored treatment modalities in this sample.
• Further research is needed to understand factors influencing these preferences and their impact on treatment outcomes.