Development of Nursing Guidelines for Inpatients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Line with the Progress of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Practical Report

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is widely regarded as an effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is usually provided on an outpatient basis. A minority of individuals need a more intensive/ inpatient service, which is particularly important for patients who cannot be managed as outpatients owing to the nature or extent of their symptoms. Inpatient treatment is generally provided by a multidisciplinary team and psychiatric nurses play a specific and prominent role as they are afforded a unique assessment and intervention opportunity by virtue of their 24-hour presence on the unit. However, there are few facilities, reports of multidisciplinary approaches, or descriptions of the role of nursing staff as cotherapists for CBT-oriented treatment of inpatients with OCD. The present paper therefore reports the developed nursing guidelines for inpatients with OCD in line with the progress of CBT at Chiba University Hospital in the context of Japan being a country in which CBT is under development. In addition, availability of the guidelines, better means of managing severe OCD and key issues for dissemination of CBT in Japan are discussed.