This team from the University of Cambridge offers us a mobile brain training application to help people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) manage their symptoms. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, shows that just one week of training can bring about significant improvements.
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One of the most common types of OCD, affecting up to 46% of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, is excessive hand washing and fears of contamination. This excessive washing can be harmful, due to the repeated use of disinfectants or even bleach…The behaviors themselves can have serious consequences on people's lives, their mental health, their relationships and even their ability to keep a job. Finally, this repetitive and compulsive behavior is associated with “cognitive rigidity”, which is a form of inability to adapt to new situations or new rules. Getting out of these compulsive habits requires, on the contrary, this cognitive flexibility because the patient with OCD must be able to move on to new activities.
Today, severe OCD is treated with a combination of drug therapies and cognitive behavioral therapy. One such therapy involves teaching patients with OCD “excessive hand washing” to touch contaminated surfaces while refraining from hand washing. However, these treatments are not always effective: it is estimated that up to 40% of patients do not respond satisfactorily. This may be because these patients stayed for years before receiving diagnosis and treatment. In addition, these therapies can be restrictive and therefore poorly observed by patients.
Cambridge researchers have therefore developed a new treatmentto help these patients. The new therapy, or intervention, is done through a smartphone app. She invites patients to watch videos showing them washing their hands or touching fake contaminated surfaces. The app is tested here with 93 patients in good health but suffering from strong fears of contamination, as measured by a recognized scale (the Padua Inventory Contamination Fear Subscale). The participants were divided into 3 groups, one group watched handwashing videos on the smartphone (A), the second group watched similar videos but showing fake contaminated surfaces (B) and the third group, the group control, watched himself make neutral hand movements on his smartphone (C). Experience shows that:
- after just one week of watching videos, 4 times a day, participants in the first two groups experienced a reduction in their OCD symptoms;
- These participants also show better cognitive flexibility vs control group;
- on average, participants in the first two groups saw their symptoms reduced by about 21% (on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale).
A remarkable compliance rate: the researchers note that all participants completed the study and watched the videos an average of 25 times: “Participants told us that the app made it easy for them to participate in their daily activities. For example, one participant said, “if I'm on the bus and touch something contaminated and can't wash my hands, the app is a good enough substitute”.
In short, this new technology allows people with this OCD to obtain help at any time and in any context. Other interventions will thus be developed and tested on other types of OCD and on this same promising principle of substitution.
NB The current application is not yet available for public use.