



The new findings show that, "If you try medications and you don't get the benefits that you would like, if you can find quality (cognitive behavioral therapy) it should make a big difference," Piacentini, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health.


While many kids (and adults) have obsessions and behaviors they do repeatedly, what defines OCD, he added, is when kids feel like they have to do those behaviors to calm themselves down or make sure everything will be okay, the compulsive part.

Franklin said that for many youngsters who don't get better on one drug, doctors will typically try adding a second or switch to a new medication. But because of worries about possible side effects, his team was interested in whether a kind of talk therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) could help those kids.

In CBT, therapists help patients recognize and change the problematic thoughts behind their behaviors.

The new study involved 124 kids aged seven to 17 with OCD. All of them had been taking at least one OCD drug, most for more than a year, but still had some symptoms.


After three months, kids who had gotten the full CBT therapy, and not just talked about it, were better off, on average, than the other participants. Close to 70 percent of them saw an improvement in their OCD symptoms, compared to 35 percent who had gotten quick instructions about doing CBT and 30 percent of kids who didn't have any extra treatment.


Jonathan Abramowitz, an OCD researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that "all things being equal," CBT is the best choice for OCD treatment. "CBT is a relatively short-term treatment and you learn skills that no one can ever take away from you," he told Reuters Health.


Franklin said that the talk-therapy sessions might cost about $100 to $200 per hour. The generic versions of some OCD medications may cost $10 per month or less.


The new study didn't test talk therapy alone in kids who weren't on medication. Still, Franklin said that if CBT was readily available, he would start most kids with OCD on therapy before prescribing drugs, except those with very high anxiety.

"Before we put chemicals into kids it's important that we get them CBT," Abramowitz agreed. Parents "should seek out that CBT first."