In a recent study from our group, the long-term effect of internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) for youth with OCD was evaluated. A group of 13 to 17 year olds received therapist-guided ICBT. Surprisingly, when followed-up 3 and 12 months after the treatment, we found that the improvements were not only maintained but that symptoms of OCD further decreased. This was unexpected, as we do not see this continued improvement in regular, face-to-face CBT for OCD.

These findings are of importance for patients, clinicians and researchers, as they suggest that the true effect of ICBT unfolds gradually over time. Although a similar pattern has been demonstrated in children with anxiety disorders who received ICBT, more reserach is needed to fully understand the causes of this delayed treatment effect.

The manuscript of this study is currently under peer-review, but is already available as a pre-print at PsychArXiv HERE.

Reference: Lenhard, F., Andersson, E., Mataix-Cols, D., Rück, C., Aspvall, K., & Serlachius, E. (2020, February 24). Long-term outcomes of therapist-guided Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder: A naturalistic one-year follow-up. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/3nk2s

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