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Symposia

Child / Adolescent - Anxiety

Using Research Findings to Extend Treatment’s Effectiveness and Reach: Examples from Pediatric Anxiety & OCD

1 - (SYM 33) Multimodal Treatment Response in Pediatric OCD: effectiveness, Predictors, and Moderators

Saturday, November 22, 2025
10:06 AM - 10:27 AM CST
Location: Strand 9, Level 2
Keywords: Anxiety, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), CBT
Recommended Readings: Franklin, M. E., Engelmann, J. M., Bulkes, N. Z., Horvath, G., Piacsek, K., Osterlund, E., Freeman, J. B., Schwartz, R., Himle, M., & Riemann, B. C. (2024). Intensive CBT telehealth for pediatric OCD during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comparison with a matched sample treated in person. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Open, 2(1), 26-35.,   Freitag, G. F., Salem, H., Conroy, K., Busto, C., Adrian, M., Borba, C. P. C., . . . Comer, J. S. (2023). The patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS) pediatric and parent-proxy short forms for anxiety: Psychometric properties in the kids FACE FEARS sample. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 94, 1-9. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2023.102677,   Kemp, J., Barker, D., Benito, K., Herren, J., & Freeman, J. (2021). Moderators of psychosocial treatment for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder: Summary and recommendations for future directions. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 50(4), 478-485. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2020.1790378,   Schwartz, R. A. (2018). Treating incompleteness in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 19, 50-60. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2018.08.001,  

    Speaker(s)

  • Martin E. Franklin, Ph.D.

    Executive Director and OCD and Anxiety Service Line Leader
    Rogers Behavioral Health
    Media, PA, United States

Abstract Body

Pediatric OCD is associated with substantive symptoms, impairment across multiple domains and, if left untreated, clinically significant dysfunction extending into adulthood.  Fortunately, the efficacy and effectiveness of several forms of treatment have now been established, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) involving exposure plus response prevention (ERP), pharmacotherapy with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), and their combination.  In the proposed presentation, we will first present the methods and baseline characteristics of a large sample of pediatric OCD patients who received ERP either alone or in combination with SSRIs at higher levels of care (intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization).  Treatment was generally effective, with clinically and statistically significant reductions in OCD symptoms (CY-BOCS total scores) and improvements in quality of life (PQLESQ) overall.  At the same time, response was neither universal nor complete, which thus necessitated examination of clinical and demographic variables that predicted response to treatment in general or moderated outcomes to each of three ERP/medication subgroups (patients on no concomitant SRI, patients on an optimized dose of SRI, and patients on a suboptimized dose of SRI at discharge).  Data from a total of 1,350 pediatric OCD patients ages 7 – 17 inclusive will be included in the analyses; proposed predictors and moderators will include gender, age, initial severity, secondary symptoms of anxiety and depression, and psychiatric comorbidity.  Implications of these findings for clinical practice will be discussed.