Brain Training Study Helps Reduce OCD Symptoms, Study Finds

An application of "brain training" developed at the University of Cambridge could help people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) manage their symptoms, which can usually include excessive hand washing and fears of contamination.

In a study published in the journal Scientific reports, Baland Jalal and Professor Barbara Sahakian of the Department of Psychiatry, show that a simple week of training can lead to significant improvements.

One of the most common types of OCD, affecting up to 46% of OCD patients, is characterized by serious fears of contamination and excessive washing behavior. Overwashing can be harmful because sometimes OCD patients use brandy, surface cleaners or even bleach to wash their hands. Behaviors can have serious consequences for people's lives, their mental health, their relationships and their ability to stay employed.

This repetitive and compulsive behavior is also badociated with "cognitive rigidity" – in other words, an inability to adapt to new situations or new rules. Getting out of compulsive habits, such as washing your hands, requires cognitive flexibility so that the OCD patient can move on to new activities.

OCD is treated using a combination of drugs such as Prozac and a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy ("speech therapy") called "exposure and response prevention". This last treatment often consists in teaching OCD patients to touch contaminated surfaces, such as toilets, while refraining from washing their hands.

However, these treatments are not particularly effective: up to 40% of patients do not respond satisfactorily to one or the other treatment. This may be due in part to the fact that people with OCD often have suffered for years before being diagnosed and treated. Another difficulty is that patients may not follow the exposure and prevention treatment because they find it too stressful.

For these reasons, Cambridge researchers have developed a new treatment to help people suffering from contamination by contamination and excessive washes. The intervention, which can be performed via a smartphone app, involves that patients watch videos showing that they are washing their hands or touching fake contaminated surfaces.

Ninety-three healthy people who displayed strong fears of contamination, measured by the highest scores on the "Padua Contamination Contamination Subscale Scale", participated in the survey. # 39; study. The researchers used healthy volunteers rather than OCD patients in their study to ensure that the procedure would not worsen the symptoms.

The participants were divided into three groups: the first group watched videos on their smartphone, washing their hands; the second group viewed similar videos that affected contaminated surfaces themselves; and the third group, the control group, watched themselves doing neutral hand movements on their smartphone.

After only a week of watching their brief 30-second videos four times a day, participants from the first two groups, namely those who had watched the handwashing video and those with the video on the prevention of HIV infection, were able to see the video. exposure and response, have improved. reduction of OCD symptoms and showed greater cognitive flexibility compared to the neutral control group. On average, participants in the first two groups saw their results improve by about 21% on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) scale. YBOCS scores are the most widely used clinical evaluations to badess the severity of OCD.

It is important to note that the study completion rates were excellent: all participants completed the one-week intervention, with participants viewing their video 25 times on an average (average).

Mr. Jalal said: "Participants told us that the smartphone wash application allowed them to easily participate in their daily activities, for example, one participant said," If I go on the bus and that I touch something tainted and that two hours later, the application would be a sufficient substitute "."

Professor Sahakian said, "This technology will allow people to get help at any time, in the environment of their place of residence or work, instead of waiting for their Appointments The use of videos on smartphone allows to personalize the treatment.

"These results, even though they are very exciting and encouraging, require additional research to examine the use of these interventions via a smartphone in people with a diagnosis of OCD."

The smartphone app is currently not available for public use. Further research is needed before researchers can conclusively demonstrate that it is effective in helping patients with OCD.

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The research was funded by Wellcome, the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Center, the Medical Research Council and the Wallitt Foundation.

Baland Jalal, Annette Bruhl, Claire O. Callaghan, Thomas Piercy, Rudolf N. Cardinal, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Barbara J. Sahakian. New smartphone interventions improve cognitive flexibility and the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in people fearing contamination. Scientific reports; October 23, 2018

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