Investigating the Effect of Cognitive-behavioral Group Therapy on Children with Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Early onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder in childhood is bad news. That is why designing andtesting various interventions that target this disorder at an early age is very important. In this regard,the present study aims to study the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral group therapy on childrenwith obsessive-compulsive disorder. This quasi-experimental study consisted of pre-test, post-test, andfollow-up stages. Out of the population of children 6 to 12 years old with obsessive-compulsivedisorder referring to psychological counseling centers in Isfahan, 30 individuals were selected. Thenthey were randomly divided into two groups of experimental group who received cognitive behavioraltherapy and control group. The experimental group received 12 sessions of group therapyintervention based on cognitive-behavioral model on a weekly basis. Yale-Brown ObsessiveCompulsive Scale was filled by the subjects in pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. Analysis ofvariance with repeated measures was used to analyze the data. The results showed that cognitivebehavioralgroup therapy in all areas of obsession and compulsion of time, interference, discomfort,resistance, and control had a significant impact (α˂ 0.01). The results obtained in this study show theeffectiveness of group therapy and group interventions in addition to other privileges of them.

Keywords:

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder , Group Therapy , Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Child , Mother