Validation of Symptom Dimensions and Sub-Type Responses in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a clinically heterogeneous condition without a conclusive subtype dimension. This study will focus on the meta-analysis of the clinical responses of OCD subtypes to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which might clarify this issue. Methods: We performed a systematic search and a meta-analysis for the studies of OCD subtypes and the response to CBT in PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. The selective criteria were the OCD without significant medical or psychiatric co-morbidities and pre-and post-treatment changes in scores of OCD dimension. In addition, different subtypes of OCD in symptom dimensions, such as symmetry, contamination, unacceptable thoughts, and hoarding, were compared to find the most significant subtype using the treatment response parameters by CBT. After limited selection, four studies and 479 OCD subjects were enrolled. The meta-analysis was performed by Review Manager 5.4, and only significant results were reported. Results: Among the OCD subtypes, the meta-analysis favors the hoarding subtype with poorer responses to CBT than symmetry, contamination, and unacceptable thoughts. The meta-analysis results were negative mean differences, significant tests for overall effect, and limited heterogeneities in the random effects model. In addition, the results were more significant when the hoarding subtype was compared with non-hoarding subtypes. Conclusion: The hoarding subtype might be the most significant representative subtype of OCD symptom dimension under the impression of unfavorable clinical response to CBT. However, future studies with more treatment parameters will be warranted to confirm this finding.