Purpose of Review This systematic review evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on obsessive-compulsive symptoms.Recent Findings Most studies showed that obsessive-compulsive symptoms worsened during the early stages of the pandemic, particularly for individuals with contamination-related obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), though other symptoms dimensions were found to worsen as well. Many patients and individuals in the general population experienced new obsessive-compulsive-like symptoms centered on COVID-19. Self-reported rates of symptom exacerbation and COVID-19-focused symptoms were consistently lower in studies that recruited patients from specialty clinics (compared to online samples). Most studies were conducted in Spring/Summer, 2020. Summary The COVID-19 pandemic has been an enormous stressor for individuals with OCD, especially for those with contamination symptoms. Regardless, there is strong reason to believe gold standard treatment approaches for OCD have maintained strong efficacy. Disseminating and effectively delivering evidence-based treatments for OCD is an urgent public health priority.
KeywordsOCD • Contamination • Exposure and response prevention • Cognitive-behavioral therapy • Serotonin reuptake inhibitors This article is part of the Topical collection on Anxiety Disorders
Parental threatening behaviors have emerged as a subset of negative parental behaviors strongly related to internalizing symptoms among youth, yet the underlying mechanisms in this association have remained unexplored. The current investigation examined the role of difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior while emotionally distressed in the association between exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and internalizing symptoms among trauma-exposed inpatient psychiatric youth. Participants (N = 50; mean [SD] age, 15.1 [0.51] years; age range, 12–17 years) completed measures of emotion dysregulation, exposure to maternal threatening behaviors, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, as well as trauma-related functional impairment. Results revealed that inability to engage in goal-directed behavior while distressed significantly explained associations between exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and each of the three symptom classes, but not the association between exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and trauma-related functional impairment. These novel findings underscore the need for interventions that target the capacity for goal-directed behavior in the context of emotional distress, especially among trauma-exposed youth who have experienced parental threatening behaviors.
This commentary outlines assessment and treatment of patients with OCD during the era of COVID-19. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has required providers to make important considerations in treatment, including how
usual risk
is defined, as well as the use of personal protective equipment and telehealth services. These considerations have allowed providers to continue using both reliable and valid assessment procedures, as well as previously established and efficacious interventions. These adjustments create a context in which patient care for OCD remains fundamentally unchanged; however, important considerations should still be made because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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