The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy With and Without Sertraline in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Pilot Randomized Trial

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most common psychiatric diagnoses in the world. Common evidence-based treatments for OCD are pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. The participants were 40 adults between 18 and 70 years old, recruited through self-referrals, professional and clinic referrals, and hospital advertisements. Participants diagnosed with OCD after telephone screening were referred to Sina Hospital in Hamadan City, Iran, for further assessment. Of the 40 participants (most of the patients were women, 80%; university education, 57.5%; mean age, 36.1 and SD of 11.74), 20 participants received CBT, and 20 underwent CBT plus sertraline after completing the intervention in both conditions, the mean OCD symptom severity score on the Y-BOCS decreased (P < 0.001), indicating that OCD symptoms improved in both conditions. The results showed that the reduction of OCD in each group was significant compared to the beginning of the study, but the two groups did not differ significantly (P = 0.058). Based on the findings of the present study, the addition of drug therapy to CBT in patients with OCD was not associated with increased therapeutic response, indicating the high effectiveness of CBT in the treatment of OCD.