Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Children
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2002-04-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The purpose of this study is to compare 3 treatments for children with OCD: medication
(sertraline, SER) alone vs OCD-specific therapy (Cognitive Behavior Therapy, CBT) vs
medication plus therapy. Some patients will receive an inactive placebo (PBO) instead of
medication and/or Educational Support (ES, non-psychological treatment) instead of therapy.
One in 200 children suffer from OCD, but few receive appropriate treatment. Both CBT and
medication seem to be effective, but their effectiveness, alone and in combination, has not
been evaluated.
There are 2 phases to this trial. In Phase I the child will receive 1 of the following 6
treatments for 12 weeks: 1) SER alone; 2) pill PBO alone; 3) CBT alone; 4) SER plus CBT; 5)
SER plus ES; 6) pill PBO plus ES. If the child responds to treatment, he/she will go on to
Phase II in which the treatment will be slowly reduced, then stopped (discontinued), over
time to test the treatment's durability. The child will be evaluated at Weeks 1, 4, 8, 12
(Phase I treatment), and Weeks 16, 20, 24, and 28 (Phase II discontinuation) to see how
effective and durable the treatment is in treating your child's OCD.
A child may be eligible for this study if he/she:
Has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is 8 - 16 years old.