[Psychotherapy of obsessivecompulsive disorder].

Psychotherapy of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) benefits from the large efficiency of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). The core technique of CBT consists in repetitive exercices of exposure with response prevention. For the patient, six months to one year daily exercises during one hour per day is the standard ambulatory format. Therapist time devoted to the patient is around 15 to 20 hours, divided into half an hour to one hour sessions. CBT is as much efficient as serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI), the major recommended drug treatment of OCD. Significant improvement is observed in 50 to 70 % of patients and remission in 10 to 20% of them. Most patients finally received association of drug and CBT (when available) but stability/improvement in patients treated by CBT appears to be better than in patients treated only by drugs.