A Qualitative Study On The Efficacy Of Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy For Obsessive Compulisive Disorder

Objective: In order to provide theoretic and clinical reference for cognitive behavioral group therapy,the study is going to explore the effects of short-term cognitive behavioral group therapy for patients with moderateto-severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and analyze the related factors to the efficacy.Methods: Ten OCD patients who completed twelve-session cognitive behavioral group therapy were selected by convenience sampling,the average age was(28±10)years,and the Y-BOCS score was(23±8.6).The researchers observed the therapy and took in-depth interviews with patients before and after it.Thematic framework method was used to code and analyze information from interviews.First of all,record transcription text was preliminarily conceptualized,then the themes were extracted and thematic framework was developed.Furthermore,researchers used thematic framework to mark all texts and gathered and described them.Besides,the scores of Y-BOCS、HAMA、HAMD before and after intervention were also collected and analyzed by paired-samples t test and reduction rate of Y-BOCS was calculated.Result: The results showed that patients presented five themes: "perceived changes","participation in groups","the process of solving the problem","the evaluation of the therapist","facing the end of treatment".There were also some factors related to the efficacy: group process,the technology and method of CBT,therapeutic relationship,patient’s personality and group structure.Besides,the Y-BOCS scores of Patients were significantly decreased(t = 3.67,P <0.05)and average reduction rate was 39.95%.The scores of HAMA,HAMD were also significantly decreased(t values were 2.35,3.28;P <0.05).All the results were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment.Conclusion: Short-term cognitive-behavioral group therapy,with ERP as the core,has a significant effect on patients with moderate to severe obsessivecompulsive disorder.It can improve the compulsive symptoms,anxiety and depression of patients and it will bring the improvement of life quality.ERP is of great importance to the improvement of symptoms.However,feelings in the therapy such as encourage,hope to reshape,understand and support are the important causes of effects of ERP,which should be paid more attention to.These non-specific factors are related to the process of group,patients,leaders,group structure and so forth.