Objective. This study compared cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with relaxation therapy (RT) as group-based treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Hitherto, most studies of group CBT in OCD have used uncontrolled designs. Methods. Forty-one patients with OCD were assigned to group CBT or group RT. Each therapy comprised 12 weekly sessions and participants were assessed primarily on the Y-BOCS. Secondary outcome measures for depressive and anxiety symptoms were also collected. All outcome measures were recorded by blind raters. Results. The percentage of drop-outs in the RT condition (35%) exceeded the number in the CBT condition (4%). However, there were no differences between group CBT and group RT in terms of improvement on primary or secondary outcome measures. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that the apparent benefits of group CBT may not relate specifically to the CBT element of treatment and also underscore the importance of controlled studies in this area. However, the disparity in drop-out rate between conditions suggests that group CBT is more acceptable to patients than group RT.
Keywords: CBT; OCD; Obsessive-compulsive disorder; cognitive behavioural therapy; group.