The effect of treatment on the quality of life of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated whether treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are associated not only with decreases in symptom severity but also with improvements in quality of life (QoL). A systematic search of PUBMED, PsycInfo, Scopus, Web of Science and ClinicalTrials databases was performed. The inclusion criteria involved RCTs that investigated adults diagnosed with OCD and incorporated evaluations of baseline and endpoint assessments for QoL and OCD symptom severity. The search found 3872 records, with 19 remaining after all screening process. Most of the studies investigated psychological interventions, categorizable into clusters of CBT-based treatments, interventions with meditation components, and augmentation strategies. This categorization was utilized to perform subgroup analysis. All subgroup interventions had a non-significant effect on QoL, except for CBT-based treatments, which demonstrated a statistically significant difference when compared to waiting lists. Regarding the effect of the interventions on the severity of OCD symptoms, the effect sizes were small for CBT-based treatments and medium for interventions with meditation components and augmentation strategies. The CBT-based treatments lead to some improvement in QoL of people with OCD (when compared to no treatment). Evidence suggested that treatments incorporating meditation components or augmentation treatments lead to improvements in OCD symptoms unparalleled by QoL improvement. Further studies are needed to assess pre- and post-intervention QoL measures for a more robust conclusion. This can facilitate the identification of more beneficial and effective treatments, both in reducing symptoms and improving QoL.