Here is a blog post referencing a study done on OCD treatment.
It, not surprisingly, found that about 1/3 of those taking medication showed no improvement. It also showed that about 1/3 of those who actually got and completed a full course of CBT showed no improvement. Again that is not surprising. Those seem to be about what every other study has shown for OCD treatment. About a third of us, maybe a little more, aren’t helped much by current treatments. Unfortunately I am one of those.
What is a little surprising is that it found only about 1/4 of the patients in the study received a full course of CBT. CBT, of course, being the gold standard for OCD treatment. It doesn’t say why, either on the blog or reading the abstract, they didn’t receive the full course. But I am sure some of it is the nature of the treatment itself. Doing CBT for OCD can put one in several circles of hell that Dante never envisioned. It’s damned hard to do and a lot of folks just can’t/won’t do it. And a lot just stop when it gets too hard/scary. Which probably accounts for some of those low numbers. If they aren’t getting the full course because their doctors aren’t making it available or prescribing it then that should be addressed.
I’ve done two formal courses of CBT for my OCD and got no benefit either time. Which was/is frustrating. And the medications did less then nothing. And it is one reason I rarely talk about my OCD here or other places. I don’t want to discourage others from trying to get better. After all the majority of people with OCD who do stick with treatment do get improvement.
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