“What’s the success rate at OCAC?” “Will I be less anxious if I come to OCAC?”
The TLDR answer? Yes, but with an asterisk. The complete answer? Keep reading.
During our initial contact with people who are struggling with Obsessive Compulsive and Anxiety Disorders inevitably the question of efficacy arises. It comes in different variations, but people want to know that if they begin treatment, that they will get better. So, if you decide to come to the OC Anxiety Center, will your symptoms improve? To adequately address this seemingly simple question, we need to unpack a few issues.
- What’s the presenting issue? Some psychological disorders have a higher rate of change than others, and some take more sessions that others. For example, we are averaging 15 sessions for completion of treatment across all Anxiety Disorders, but the range is ~10 sessions for Specific Phobias (like fear of vomiting or flying) to ~25 sessions for Social Anxiety Disorder. Obsessive Compulsive Disorders typically take longer, ranging from ~30-45 sessions, with Body Dysmorphic Disorder often taking longer than OCD.
- How motivated is the individual to change? This is one of the most important aspects in treatment efficacy. As an example, if I think I’d like to lose 5 lbs of holiday weight, but my clothes still fit, and work is busy, I may not put in the effort to really lose the weight. Conversely, if I’m morbidly overweight and my doctor just told me if I don’t lose weight I may have a heart attack, I’m embarrassed that I have to use the belt extender on airplane seats, I can barely get up a flight of stairs and my diabetes symptoms are getting worse, I’m likely to work very hard to lose the weight. Similarly, if someone is being forced into treatment (e.g., parents making their child into treatment when they don’t want to) or has strong secondary gains (reasons to maintain their anxiety, like not having to go to school or work), he or she is less likely to engage in treatment. As OCAC utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with an emphasis on Exposure and Response Prevention, people who come for treatment need to know that there is significant work outside of their sessions. Homework is given nearly every session. Some are written exercises, there are also readings out of workbooks and also physical activities. If someone isn’t willing to put in the effort, treatment will be less effective.
- There are other factors that also play a role that are not specific to OCAC and its use of CBT with ERP. As examples, these include an individual’s support system, finances, time availability and rapport with the clinician. We try to help assess these before we begin treatment, as we want people to succeed when they come to us.
All that being said, we do have data that indicates that we are effective in the treatment of Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders falling into two categories, general to CBT and specific to OCAC.
- General: There is significant research that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and in particular Exposure and Response Prevention is the leading treatment choice for Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders. While there are other modalities that have evidence (e.g., DBT, ACT, EMDR), techniques that do not have evidence but seem logical (deep breathing, distraction, relaxation techniques), and some modalities that have shown to not be efficacious (e.g. psychodynamic, general talk therapy), CBT with ERP has been shown to have significant impact in a short amount of time. How short? Read on.
- Specific: We have begun collecting data on a regular basis with our patients. This is data is stripped of specifics to protect our patients’ identity but is useful in understanding how are patients do on average. What have we found?
- We have a roughly 85% treatment success rate for Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, defined as patients completing their protocol and no longer meeting the DSM-V-TR criteria for the disorder they sought treatment.
- The average number of sessions to complete treatment for all Obsessive Compulsive Disorders was nineteen, and for Anxiety Disorders is was fifteen.
- We have completed several P-IOP cases (as defined as seeing an individual three or more sessions a week) with roughly the same efficacy as those we treat on a weekly basis.
- There was no statistical difference in outcome between those treated in person, online, or hybrid of both modalities.
So what’s the takeaway?
If you have an Anxiety or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and are motivated to work on the issue, the OC Anxiety Center can help you, and you’re likely to get better.