"Association Splitting" in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Summary

Over a period of 3 weeks, association splitting is compared to cognitive remediation (CogPack training) as an add-on intervention to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Blind to treatment assignment, both groups are assessed before intervention and eight weeks as well as six months later with the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI-R) and cognitive tests. OCD severity as measured by the Y-BOCS total score serves as the primary outcome parameter. It is assumed that association splitting will improve OCD severity to a greater extent than cognitive remediation.

Conditions

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

"association splitting"

"Association splitting" is a cognitive intervention which aims at reducing obsessive thoughts. Association splitting is based on the so called fan effect (Anderson, 1974) and aims at reducing the strength of obsessive cognitions. For this purpose core intrusive thoughts are identified with the patient (such as "cancer - illness") and the patient is encouraged to find non-OCD associations that are (semantically or phonologically) related to the OCD cognition (such as "cancer - (zodiac) sign", "cancer - great crab"). To strengthen the novel connections, these associations are elaborated by the use of pictures, music, or smells. By enhancing OC-unrelated associations it is assumed that the influence of OC-related concepts is weakened.

BEHAVIORAL

cognitive remediation

Computerized cognitive remediation (CogPack training). A fixed sequence is administered, which covers a wide range of neuropsychological exercises involving memory, reasoning, selective attention and psychomotor speed. The difficulty level for each patient is adapted automatically depending on to the subject's performance on prior exercises. At the end of each session, the patient receives individual feedback on his or her performance. To match with association splitting, six sessions are administered. Each session lasts approximately 45-60 minutes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• German Research Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lena Jelinek, PhD · Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

• Steffen Moritz, PhD · Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-03-31

Primary Completion

2012-07-31

Completion

2012-07-31

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations