A Randomized Trial Testing the Benefits of a Psychoeducation Program for Those Awaiting Treatment for OCD and OCD Spectrum Disorders

This study will examine the effect of offering information sessions to a randomized group of patients with OCD spectrum disorders. Psychoeducation is a component of first line treatment; though intended to be informative in nature, these psychoeducation services can have a positive effect on quality of life, sense of self-efficacy, functioning and a person's readiness to engage in long term treatment. However, no studies have dismantled and tested the independent effect of psychoeducation from standard treatment such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This study aims to directly test the potential effect of one aspect of CBT that if found to be helpful, can become a distinct early intervention component of care so that as people await services, they can profit from the early benefits associated with attending these information sessions. This study therefore sets out to examine the potential early benefits of providing education about the illness on symptom functioning, quality of life and readiness to engage in more formal treatment. We will offer 4 structured information sessions to individuals allocated to a wait list for services related to the treatment of OCD and OCD Spectrum Disorders in order to directly test the benefit of adding a didactic structured psychoeducation program to our services. The study will be a randomized trial where subjects (N=50) will be randomly assigned to receive either 1) 4 educational sessions covering information on diagnosis, treatment, available resources and self care for OCD and OCD Spectrum Disorders or 2) wait list as per usual with no additional information sessions. The experimental design is a 2 (treatment condition) by 2 (assessment phase) repeated measures factorial design. It is hypothesized that subjects participating in the psychoeducation group compared to the wait list control group will see greater reductions in self-reported measures of symptom severity and improvement in other measures of quality of life, level of functioning, self-efficacy and readiness to engage in treatment. If this study can demonstrate that the addition of a short structured informative intervention of 4 sessions can confer early benefits for those suffering with OCD and OCD spectrum disorders, then it provides another route by which patients can improve this condition specifically while waiting for consultation and the opportunity to receive a more structured, evidence-based treatment.