A 5-year prospective follow-up study of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors

Cognitive and clinical predictors of a long-term course in obsessive compulsive disorder: A machine learning approach in a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disabling illness with a chronic course, yet data on long-term outcomes are scarce. This study aimed to examine the long-term course of OCD in patients treated with different approaches (drugs, psychotherapy, and psychosurgery) and to identify predictors of clinical outcome by machine learning.

METHOD

We included outpatients with OCD treated at our referral unit. Demographic and neuropsychological data were collected at baseline using standardized instruments. Clinical data were collected at baseline, 12 weeks after starting pharmacological treatment prescribed at study inclusion, and after follow-up.

RESULTS

Of the 60 outpatients included, with follow-up data available for 5-17 years (mean = 10.6 years), 40 (67.7 %) were considered non-responders to adequate treatment at the end of the study. The best machine learning model achieved a correlation of 0.63 for predicting the long-term Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score by adding clinical response (to the first pharmacological treatment) to the baseline clinical and neuropsychological characteristics.

LIMITATIONS

Our main limitations were the sample size, modest in the context of traditional ML studies, and the sample composition, more representative of rather severe OCD cases than of patients from the general community.

CONCLUSIONS

Many patients with OCD showed persistent and disabling symptoms at the end of follow-up despite comprehensive treatment that could include medication, psychotherapy, and psychosurgery. Machine learning algorithms can predict the long-term course of OCD using clinical and cognitive information to optimize treatment options.

Long-term remission rates and trajectory predictors in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Findings from a six-year naturalistic longitudinal cohort study

BACKGROUND

This naturalistic study, utilizing data from the Netherlands Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Association (NOCDA) cohort, investigated the long-term remission rates and predictors of different trajectories of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) within a clinical population.

METHODS

A sample of 213 participants was classified into three illness trajectories: "Chronic," "Episodic, "and "Remitted-OCD." Long-term remission rates were calculated based on three follow-up measurements over a 6-year period. A multinomial logistic regression model, incorporating five selected predictors with high explanatory power and one covariate, was employed to analyze OCD trajectory outcomes.

RESULTS

The long-term full remission rates, calculated from all the measurements combined (14%), were significantly lower than what was observed in earlier studies and when compared to assessments at each individual follow-up (∼30%). Moreover, high baseline symptom severity and early age of onset were identified as significant risk factors for a chronic course of OCD, while male sex and younger age predicted a more favorable trajectory. Notably, the likelihood of an episodic course remained high even without identified risk factors.

LIMITATIONS

The bi-annual data collection process is unable to capture participants' clinical conditions between assessments. Additionally, no data was collected regarding the specific type and duration of psychological treatment received. Regarding the type of treatment participants received.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that long-term remission rates may be lower than previously reported. Consequently, employing multiple assessment points in longitudinal studies is necessary for valid estimation of long-term full remission rates. The results emphasize the importance of personalized clinical care and ongoing monitoring and maintenance for most OCD cases.

Predictors of the 6-year outcome of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Findings from the Netherlands Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Association study

OBJECTIVE

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by a chronic course that can vary between patients. The knowledge on the naturalistic long-term outcome of obsessive-compulsive disorder and its predictors is surprisingly limited. The present research was designed to identify clinical and psychosocial predictors of the long-term outcome of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

METHODS

We included 377 individuals with a current diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, who participated in the Netherlands Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Association study, a multicenter naturalistic cohort study. Predictors were measured at baseline using self-report questionnaires and clinical interviews. Outcome was assessed using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale at 2-, 4- and 6-year follow-up.

RESULTS

The overall course of obsessive-compulsive disorder was characterized by two prominent trends: the first reflected an improvement in symptom severity, which was mitigated by the second, worsening trend in the long term. Several determinants affected the course variations of obsessive-compulsive disorder, namely, increased baseline symptom severity, late age of onset, history of childhood trauma and autism traits.

CONCLUSION

The long-term outcome of obsessive-compulsive disorder in naturalistic settings was characterized by an overall improvement in symptom severity, which was gradually halted to the point of increased worsening. However, after 6 years, the severity of symptoms remained below the baseline level. While certain determinants predicted a more favorable course, their effect diminished over time in correspondence to the general worsening trend. The results highlight the importance of a regular and continuous monitoring for symptom exacerbations as part of the management of the obsessive-compulsive disorder, regardless of the presence of putative predictors.

Dysfunctional Beliefs and Cognitive Performance across Symptom Dimensions in Childhood and Adolescent OCD

Although etiological and maintenance cognitive factors have proved effective in predicting the disease course in youths with OCD, their contribution to symptom severity and specific OCD dimensions has been scarcely examined. In a cohort of children and adolescents with OCD (N = 41; mean age = 14; age range = 10-18 yrs.), we investigated whether certain dysfunctional beliefs and cognitive traits could predict symptom severity, and whether they were differentially associated with specific symptom dimensions. We found that self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism and intolerance to uncertainty were associated with higher obsession severity, which was not uniquely related to any neuropsychological variable. Greater severity of obsessions and compulsions about harm due to aggression/injury/violence/natural disasters was predicted by excessive concerns with the expectations of other people. Severity in this dimension was additionally predicted by decreasing accuracy in performing a problem-solving, non-verbal reasoning task, which was also a significant predictor of severity of obsessions about symmetry and compulsions to count or order/arrange. Apart from corroborating both the belief-based and neuropsychological models of OCD, our findings substantiate for the first time the specificity of certain dysfunctional beliefs and cognitive traits in two definite symptom dimensions in youth. This bears important clinical implications for developing treatment strategies to deal with unique dysfunctional core beliefs, and possibly for preventing illness chronicity.

A Systematic Review of Treatment Outcome Predictors in Deep Brain Stimulation for Refractory Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and debilitating mental disorder. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising approach for refractory OCD patients. Research aiming at treatment outcome prediction is vital to provide optimized treatments for different patients. The primary purpose of this systematic review was to collect and synthesize studies on outcome prediction of OCD patients with DBS implantations in recent years. This systematic review (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022335585) followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis) guidelines. The search was conducted using three different databases with the following search terms related to OCD and DBS. We identified a total of 3814 articles, and 17 studies were included in our review. A specific tract confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was predictable for DBS outcome regardless of implant targets, but inconsistencies still exist. Current studies showed various ways of successful treatment prediction. However, considering the heterogeneous results, we hope that future studies will use larger cohorts and more precise approaches for predictors and establish more personalized ways of DBS surgeries.

Prediction of illness remission in patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder with supervised machine learning

INTRODUCTION

The course of OCD differs widely among OCD patients, varying from chronic symptoms to full remission. No tools for individual prediction of OCD remission are currently available. This study aimed to develop a machine learning algorithm to predict OCD remission after two years, using solely predictors easily accessible in the daily clinical routine.

METHODS

Subjects were recruited in a longitudinal multi-center study (NOCDA). Gradient boosted decision trees were used as supervised machine learning technique. The training of the algorithm was performed with 227 predictors and 213 observations collected in a single clinical center. Hyper-parameter optimization was performed with cross-validation and a Bayesian optimization strategy. The predictive performance of the algorithm was subsequently tested in an independent sample of 215 observations collected in five different centers. Between-center differences were investigated with a bootstrap resampling approach.

RESULTS

The average predictive performance of the algorithm in the test centers resulted in an AUROC of 0.7820, a sensitivity of 73.42%, and a specificity of 71.45%. Results also showed a significant between-center variation in the predictive performance. The most important predictors resulted related to OCD severity, OCD chronic course, use of psychotropic medications, and better global functioning.

LIMITATIONS

All recruiting centers followed the same assessment protocol and are in The Netherlands. Moreover, the sample of the data recruited in some of the test centers was limited in size.

DISCUSSION

The algorithm demonstrated a moderate average predictive performance, and future studies will focus on increasing the stability of the predictive performance across clinical settings.

Knowledge and competency standards for specialized cognitive behavior therapy for adult obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a leading cause of disability world-wide (World Health Organization, 2008). Treatment of OCD is a specialized field whose aim is recovery from illness for as many patients as possible. The evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatment for OCD is specialized cognitive behavior therapy (CBT, NICE, 2005, Koran and Simpson, 2013). However, these treatments are not accessible to many sufferers around the world. Currently available guidelines for care are deemed to be essential but insufficient because of highly variable clinician knowledge and competencies specific to OCD. The phase two mandate of the 14 nation International OCD Accreditation Task Force (ATF) created by the Canadian Institute for Obsessive Compulsive Disorders is development of knowledge and competency standards for specialized treatments for OCD through the lifespan deemed by experts to be foundational to transformative change in this field. This paper presents knowledge and competency standards for specialized CBT for adult OCD developed to inform, advance, and offer a model for clinical practice and training for OCD. During upcoming ATF phases three and four criteria and processes for training in specialized treatments for OCD through the lifespan for certification (individuals) and accreditation (sites) will be developed based on the ATF standards.

Naturalistic outcome of medication-naïve obsessive compulsive disorder treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors

OBJECTIVE

The data on the course of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is mostly derived from studying chronic, severely ill patients with varying degree of treatment resistance. We studied the course and outcome of OCD patients who were medication-naïve at initial assessment compared to those who were medicated.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We analyzed the clinical chart data of all patients with a primary diagnosis of OCD attending a speciality OCD clinic in India during a specified period and compared outcome between medication-naïve (n = 75) and medicated (n = 117) patients.

RESULTS

The mean time to remission was shorter in the medication-naïve [18.99 months (95 % CI: 14.61-23.37)] compared to medicated [33.91 months (95 % CI: 27.55-40.28)] patients. The survival distribution of the two groups was significantly different as per the log-rank test (χ2 = 5.76, p = 0.02). In the Cox proportional hazards regression, medication-naïve status predicted time to remission. Overall, the rate of remission was the same in both groups (57 %).

CONCLUSIONS

Medication-naïve OCD patients seem to remit faster than the previously treated patients. Future prospective naturalistic studies can compare the outcome of medication naïve OCD patients treated with medications and CBT.

Childhood trauma and attachment style predict the four-year course of obsessive compulsive disorder: Findings from the Netherlands obsessive compulsive disorder study

INTRODUCTION

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic psychiatric disorder where most patients do not reach full symptomatic remission. Identifying predictors of course can improve patients' care by informing clinicians on prognosis and enhancing treatment strategies. Several predictors associated with improved outcome of OCD were identified. However, research focused mainly on clinical, illness-related predictors of the course of OCD. This study examined the contribution of environmental and interpersonal predictors on the long-term outcome of OCD, in addition to the previously identified clinical indicators.

METHODS

We used the baseline, two and four-year data of 382 adult OCD patients participating in the naturalistic cohort study of the Netherlands Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Association (NOCDA). Remission was assessed using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). Predictors of outcome were assessed at baseline, via clinician-rated and self-report instruments.

RESULTS

Remission at two and at four-year follow-up ranged from 11% to 26%. Early age of onset and the presence of childhood trauma predicted a worse four-year course. Secure attachment style emerged as a protective predictor of improved outcome.

LIMITATIONS

The naturalistic design of our study did not enable a systematic estimation the effect of treatments received during the follow-up period. Furthermore, age of onset and childhood trauma were assessed retrospectively, which may contribute to recall bias.

CONCLUSION

Results coincide with previous prediction research and stress the importance of adaptive interpersonal functioning in the course of OCD. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Predictors of treatment outcome in OCD: An interpersonal perspective

Although effective treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are increasingly available, a considerable percentage of patients fails to respond or relapses. Predictors associated with improved outcome of OCD were identified. However, information on interpersonal determinants is lacking. This study investigated the contribution of attachment style and expressed emotion to the outcome of exposure and response prevention (ERP), while accounting for previously documented intrapersonal (i.e., symptom severity and personality pathology) predictors. Using logistic regression analyses and multi-level modeling, we examined predictors of treatment completion and outcome among 118 adult OCD patients who entered ERP. We assessed outcome at post treatment, and at four and 13 months from treatment completion. OCD baseline severity and fearful attachment style emerged as the main moderators of treatment outcome. Severe and fearfully attached patients were more likely to dropout prematurely. The improvement of fearful clients was attenuated throughout treatment and follow-up compared to non-fearful clients. However, their symptom worsening at the long-term was also mitigated. Severe OCD patients had a more rapid symptom reduction during treatment and at follow-up, compared to less severe clients. The findings suggest that both baseline OCD severity and fearful attachment style play a role in the long-term outcome of ERP.

Course and outcome of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is generally believed to follow a chronic waxing and waning course. The onset of illness has a bimodal peak - in early adolescence and in early adulthood. Consultation and initiation of treatment are often delayed for several years. Studies over the past 2-3 decades have found that the long-term outcomes in OCD are not necessarily bleak and that at least half the treatment-seeking patients with OCD show symptomatic remission over long term. A short duration illness, of low severity that is treated early and intensively, with continued maintenance treatment over long term possibly has a good outcome. Recent studies have also identified neuroimaging and neuropsychological correlates of good outcome, but these need further replication. This paper presents an overview of conceptual issues and studies on long-term outcome of OCD and predictors of outcome.

Clinical factors associated with lithium treatment response in bipolar disorder patients from India

BACKGROUND

Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a chronic and disabling psychiatric illness with waxing and waning course. Lithium is the mainstay of treatment for Bipolar disorder (BD). There is limited literature on the clinical markers of Lithium treatment response from south Asia.

METHODS

Two hundred and ten individuals with BD I and a history of at least 6 months of treatment with Lithium were recruited from the outpatient services of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) after obtaining informed consent. A diagnosis of BD I was made according to the DSM-IV criteria. The characterization of response to lithium prophylaxis was done using NIMH Retrospective Life Chart and "Retrospective Criteria of Long Term Treatment Response in Research Subjects with Bipolar Disorder" scale.

RESULTS

There were 132 (62.86%) good responders and 78 (37.14%) non-responders. Good responders were noted to have less number of hospitalizations and more onset episode of depression than non-responders. Using continuous phenotype, Lithium response was inversely correlated with total number of episodes, number of episodes of mania/ depression, number of hospitalisations and presence of suicide attempt. Multivariate analysis only revealed number of episodes and hospitalization to be associated with Lithium response.

CONCLUSION

Our Lithium response rates were higher than what have been reported in the few previous studies. Illness severity was the only factor associated with Lithium response. There is a need to examine this question in larger prospective samples and to focus on biological/ molecular markers of treatment response.

Gender differences in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Findings from a multicentric study from India

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is phenotypically heterogeneous. Gender is an important factor mediating this heterogeneity. We examined gender differences in a large sample (n = 945) of OCD patients under a multi-centric study in India. Cross-sectional assessments were done on consecutive adult (>18 years) treatment-seeking patients with a DSM-5 diagnosis of OCD. Subjects were assessed on Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5-Research Version for comorbid psychiatric illnesses, Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale for OCD phenomenology and symptom severity, Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale for insight, Beck's Depression Inventory for severity of depressive symptoms, and the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire. On multivariate backward Wald logistic regression analysis, males (59.7%) had more years of education, had a higher rate of checking compulsions and comorbid substance use disorders. Women were more likely to be married, more commonly reported precipitating factors, had a higher rate of hoarding compulsions and comorbid agoraphobia. Findings from this large study validate gender as an important mediator of phenotypic heterogeneity in OCD. The mechanistic basis for these differences might involve complex interactions between biological, cultural and environmental factors.

Ten-year follow-up study of Japanese patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

AIM

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a well-known chronic illness. This study retrospectively investigated 10-year outcomes and associated clinical factors in Japanese OCD patients. We focused on the impact of several sociocultural factors, including medical expenses and insurance systems specific to each country, on the differences or biases in follow-up procedures of OCD.

METHODS

Seventy-nine patients diagnosed with OCD who received a standardized combination of treatments for 10 continuous years were divided into three groups according to their improvement rates on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale after 10 years of treatment.

RESULTS

A survival analysis revealed that the rate of patients achieving full remission increased every year. Following 10 years of treatment, 56% of OCD patients experienced 'full remission' for at least 1 year. Consequently, 48% exhibited full remission, and 37% exhibited partial remission at the end-point of this study. We identified several factors that were predictive of poorer outcomes, including lower Global Assessment of Functioning Scale scores and the presence of hoarding symptoms or involvement behaviors. In addition, improvement rates after 1 year significantly predicted better 10-year outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Our findings highlight the transcultural nature of long-term outcomes of OCD treatment, which appear to be independent of sociocultural differences.

The relevance of feature selection methods to the classification of obsessive-compulsive disorder based on volumetric measures

BACKGROUND

Magnetic resonance images (MRI) show detectable anatomical and functional differences between individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and healthy subjects. Moreover, machine learning techniques have been proposed as tools to identify potential biomarkers and, ultimately, to support clinical diagnosis. However, few studies to date have investigated feature selection (FS) influences in OCD MRI-based classification.

METHODS

Volumes of cortical and subcortical structures, from MRI data of 38 OCD patients (split into two groups according symptoms severity) and 36 controls, were submitted to seven feature selection algorithms. FS aims to select the most relevant and less redundant features which discriminate between two classes. Then, a classification step was applied, from which the classification performances before and after different FS were compared. For the performance evaluation, leave-one-subject-out accuracies of Support Vector Machine classifiers were considered.

RESULTS

Using different FS algorithms, performance improvement was achieved for Controls vs. All OCD discrimination (19.08% of improvement reducing by 80% the amount of features), Controls vs. Low OCD (20.10%, 75%), Controls vs. High OCD (17.32%, 85%) and Low OCD vs. High OCD (10.53%, 75%). Furthermore, all algorithms pointed out classical cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuitry structures as relevant features for OCD classification.

LIMITATIONS

Limitations include the sample size and using only filter approaches for FS.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that FS positively impacts OCD classification using machine-learning techniques. Complementarily, FS algorithms were able to select biologically plausible features automatically.

The magnitude of and health system responses to the mental health treatment gap in adults in India and China

This Series paper describes the first systematic effort to review the unmet mental health needs of adults in China and India. The evidence shows that contact coverage for the most common mental and substance use disorders is very low. Effective coverage is even lower, even for severe disorders such as psychotic disorders and epilepsy. There are vast variations across the regions of both countries, with the highest treatment gaps in rural regions because of inequities in the distribution of mental health resources, and variable implementation of mental health policies across states and provinces. Human and financial resources for mental health are grossly inadequate with less than 1% of the national health-care budget allocated to mental health in either country. Although China and India have both shown renewed commitment through national programmes for community-oriented mental health care, progress in achieving coverage is far more substantial in China. Improvement of coverage will need to address both supply-side barriers and demand-side barriers related to stigma and varying explanatory models of mental disorders. Sharing tasks with community-based workers in a collaborative stepped-care framework is an approach that is ripe to be scaled up, in particular through integration within national priority health programmes. India and China need to invest in increasing demand for services through active engagement with the community, to strengthen service user leadership and ensure that the content and delivery of mental health programmes are culturally and contextually appropriate.

Trait-related decision making impairment in obsessive-compulsive disorder: evidence from decision making under ambiguity but not decision making under risk

This study aimed to investigate whether deficits in decision making were potential endophenotype markers for OCD considering different phases of the disease. Fifty-seven non-medicated OCD patients (nmOCD), 77 medicated OCD patients (mOCD), 48 remitted patients with OCD (rOCD) and 115 healthy controls were assessed with the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which measured decision making under ambiguity, and the Game of Dice Task (GDT), which measured decision making under risk. While the three patients groups showed impaired performance on the IGT compared with healthy controls, all patients showed intact performance on the GDT. Furthermore, the rOCD patients showed a preference for deck B, indicating that they showed more sensitivity to the frequency of loss than to the magnitude of loss, whereas the mOCD patients showed a preference for deck A, indicating that they had more sensitivity to the magnitude of loss than to the frequency of loss. These data suggested that OCD patients had trait-related impairments in decision making under ambiguity but not under risk, and that dissociation of decision making under ambiguity and under risk is an appropriate potential neurocognitive endophenotype for OCD. The subtle but meaningful differences in decision making performance between the OCD groups require further study.

Symptom Dimensions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Obsessive Beliefs

BACKGROUND

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a heterogeneous condition with a few major symptom dimensions. These symptom dimensions are thought to have unique clinical and neurobiological correlates. There seems to be a specific relation between OCD symptom dimensions and obsessive beliefs, but the findings are not consistent across studies. There is also a paucity of literature from culturally diverse settings. One of the reasons for the varied findings could be due to the method employed in measuring OCD symptoms.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this study, we examined the relation between symptom dimensions and obsessive beliefs using the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire respectively in 75 patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition OCD.

RESULTS

Perfectionism predicted both aggressive and symmetry dimensions whereas responsibility beliefs predicted sexual and religious dimensions.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that certain obsessive beliefs predicted certain OCD symptom dimensions, but results are not entirely consistent with the published literature suggesting the possibility of cross-cultural variations. That the symptom dimensions have unique belief domains support the argument that symptom dimensions could be targeted to reduce the heterogeneity in etiological and treatment studies of OCD. Therapeutic interventions may have to aim at modifying unique belief domains underlying certain symptom dimensions rather than having generic cognitive-behavioral strategies.