CBT+vs.+Drug+Therapy

__//**Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapies:**//__ The success of cognitive behavioral therapy is shown by its establishment as a mainstay treatment choice for the management of obsessive compulsive disorder. In particular, CBT for the treatment of OCD is backed by the findings of several meta analyses of studies (Rosa-Alcazar, 2008) which show the benefit. A major strength to use of CBT over a drug therapy is that the results are more long lasting and with higher efficacy, and the results persist, and the safety of CBT over drug therapy in terms of side effects (Storch __et al__, 2010).

Individual Behavioral Therapy is common for Exposure and Response Prevention rather than group therapies (Fineberg __et al,__ 2005).

Only ERP ( Exposure and Response Prevention) has been shown to be the empirically proven to be “an empirically supported psychological treatment” for OCD (Rasa-Alcazar et al, 2008). Other treatments commonly compare their efficacy against ERP. A comparison of several studies showed that CBT in which the exposure is therapist guided had better outcomes than therapist assisted self-exposure (Rosa-Alcazar, 2008).

Treatment for OCD can be complicated by the presence of other disorders, (ie. by having common co-existing concurrent condition which can include: panic attacks, depressive disorders, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorders (Storch __et al,__ 2010)).

__Drug Therapy__
 * drugs often have undesirable side effects
 * can be costly
 * can be hard to specifically treat one area of symptoms (CAMH, 2001)
 * can have potential interactions with other drugs (CAMH, 2001)
 * only treats the biological mechanisms of OCD, but does not necessarily change the behavior(CAMH, 2001)