The Efficacy of "Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy" Compared to Exposure and Response Prevention and "Fluoxetine" in the Recovery of Obsessive-Compulsive Patients

The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of the cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), exposure and response prevention (ERP) and Fluoxetine in the obsessive-compulsive patients. The experimental design was selected and 59 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) diagnosis were randomly assigned to 4 groups: cognitive-behavioral therapy, exposure and response prevention, Fluoxetine and waiting-list. Patients in the four groups were seleted with respect to the variables such as age, sex, academic and marital status. For gathering data Moudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used as instruments. The patients of the four groups completed these three questionnaires in 3 stages (pre test, post test, follow-up with 2 months interval). The data were analysed by multivariate analyses of Anova (MANOVA-1 way), and post hoc test (T tukey). The findings indicated the treatment effect of CBT on OCD severity was more significant than Fluoxetine in short-term and long-term (P < 0/05, P < 0/01, respectively ). This difference between CBT and waiting-list groups was also significant (P < 0/01). The efficacy of ERP on OCD severity was more than Fluoxetine only in short-term (P < 0/05). This difference between ERP and waiting-list groups was significant in both short-term and long-term too (P < 0/01). Moreover, This difference between Fluoxetine and waiting-list groups was significant only in short-term (P < 0/05). On the efficacy of fluoxetine in depression severity in both short-term and long-term was more significant than CBT (P < 0/01) and ERP (short-term P < 0/01, long-term P < 0/05, ). In addition, this difference between ERP and waiting-list groups was significant in both short-term and long-term (P < 0/01, P < 0/05, respectively ). On the basis of both findings it can be concluded that CBT, ERP and fluoxetine are effective on OC and depressive symptoms of OCD patients but the long-term efficacy of CBT and ERP is higher than fluoxetine.