An Open Trial of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Exposure and Response Prevention in an Intensive Outpatient Setting for Adults with OCD

Intensive outpatient (IOP) treatment settings for adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are common, but data on their effectiveness is limited. The effectiveness of IOP treatment for adults with OCD using combined Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) was studied with eight adults. The intervention was 15 hours per week for three weeks. Measures were collected at pre-treatment, one-week, two-weeks, post-treatment, and at one-month follow-up. At the end of treatment, all participants were in the mild range of OCD symptom severity with a mean symptom decrease of 58%. Psychological inflexibility, depression, anxiety and stress significantly decreased through treatment and participants ended treatment below clinical range for psychological inflexibility and non-clinical to mild range for depression, anxiety and stress. The results of this study provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of ACT and ERP in an IOP setting for adults with OCD. The focus of this paper is on the clinical application of this treatment.