6.117 COGNITIVE-BEHAVIOR TREATMENT FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER: ONE YEAR OUTCOMES FROM THE NORDIC LONG-TERM OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER TREATMENT STUDY (NORDLOTS)

Objectives: This study reports findings from a one-year follow-up of the Nordic Long-term OCD Treatment Study (NordLOTS) sample. OCD affects between 0.25 percent and 4 percent of children and adolescents. Around 40 percent of youth with OCD continue to meet criteria for OCD well into adulthood. CBT is the recommended first line treatment for pediatric OCD. Consistent with the limited follow-up research on pediatric OCD, we expected treatment effects to last throughout the first year following acute treatment. Methods: This prospective follow-up study was a part of the Nordic Long-term OCD Treatment Study (NordLOTS) in which 177 responders to a first step open trial 14 weeks manualized CBT program were assessed six and twelve months after treatment termination. Treatment response was defined as a Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) total score < 16. Remission was defined as a CY-BOCS total score ≤10. Results: At one-year follow-up 155 (87.6 percent) of the original sample were available for assessment and 142 (91.6 percent) were still rated as responders. Of these 121 (78.1 percent) were in remission. Mixed effects analysis revealed that patients continued to show symptom reduction over the one year follow-up period (F[2, 313.15] = 11.230, p < 0.001). Twenty-eight patients relapsed (CY-BOCS ≥16) during the one-year follow-up, with a mean increase in CY-BOCS scores of 5.54 (SD=7.54). Nineteen (67.8 percent) of the 28 had relapsed by the 6-month assessment period and of those, 11 returned to responder status with a CY-BOCS total score < 16 by the 12-month assessment point. Conclusions: Results of this follow-up study suggest that manualized CBT applied in community settings has durable effects and that patients continue to improve during the first year following acute treatment. Moreover, results showed that only few patients relapsed during the first year and that only a small percentage of patients will need additional treatment during this period.