Efficacy of Internet-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Machado-Sousa, Mafalda
Moreira, Pedro Silva
Costa, Ana Daniela
Soriano-Mas, Carles
Morgado, Pedro

Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho
ICVS-3Bs PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal
Clinical Academic Center-Braga (2CA), Braga, Portugal
Psychology Research Centre, School of Psychology, University of Minho
Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL)
Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Carlos III Health Institute
Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona-UB

Carles Soriano-Mas and Pedro Morgado contributed equally.

Mafalda Machado-Sousa served as lead for conceptualization, writing–original draft, and contributed equally to formal analysis. Pedro Silva Moreira served as lead for formal analysis and software. Mafalda Machado-Sousa and Ana Daniela Costa contributed to data curation and methodology equally. Mafalda Machado-Sousa, Pedro Silva Moreira, Ana Daniela Costa, Carles Soriano-Mas, and Pedro Morgado contributed to writing–review and editing equally. Carles Soriano-Mas and Pedro Morgado contributed to conceptualization equally.

Pedro Morgado, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal [email protected]

Received March 11, 2022

revised September 23, 2022

Accepted December 1, 2022

Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice 30(2):p 150-162, June 2023. | DOI: 10.1037/cps0000133

There has been a growing interest in the use of remote interventions based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)—the gold-standard treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), to deal with the barriers associated with face-to-face approaches. We performed a meta-analytic aggregation of the literature to characterize the efficacy of internet-based CBT (iCBT) in adult OCD patients. Our findings showed large effect sizes of iCBT in improving OCD symptoms in pre to post (g = 1.14), pre to follow-up (g = 1.16), and between control and experimental groups (g = 0.81). While iCBT seems a promising approach for reducing OCD symptoms, further research is needed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of iCBT for OCD in contexts beyond clinical trials, that is, integrated in routine health care.