Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:37:14.063Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Do Cognitive Models of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Apply to Children and Adolescents?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Shirley Reynolds*
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Jenny Reeves
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
*
Reprint requests to Shirley Reynolds, School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7QH, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Cognitive models of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have been influential in understanding and treating the disorder in adults. Cognitive models may also be applicable to children and adolescents and would have important implications for treatment. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate research that examined the applicability of the cognitive model of OCD to children and adolescents. Inclusion criteria were set broadly but most studies identified included data regarding responsibility appraisals, thought-action fusion or meta-cognitive models of OCD in children or adolescents. Eleven studies were identified in a systematic literature search. Seven studies were with non clinical samples, and 10 studies were cross-sectional. Only one study did not support cognitive models of OCD in children and adolescents and this was with a clinical sample and was the only experimental study. Overall, the results strongly supported the applicability of cognitive models of OCD to children and young people. There were, however, clear gaps in the literature. Future research should include experimental studies, clinical groups, and should test which of the different models provide more explanatory power.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allsopp, M. and Verduyn, C. (1990). Adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a case note review of consecutive patients referred to a provincial regional adolescent psychiatry unit. Journal of Adolescence, 13, 157169.Google Scholar
Barrett, P. M. and Healy, L. J. (2003). An examination of the cognitive processes involved in childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 285299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, P. and Healy-Farrell, L. (2003). Perceived responsibility in juvenile obsessive-compulsive disorder: an experimental manipulation. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 430441.Google Scholar
Bolton, D., Dearsley, P., Madronal-Luque, R. and Baron-Cohen, S. (2002). Magical thinking in childhood and adolescence: development and relation to obsessive compulsion. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20, 479494.Google Scholar
Cartwright-Hatton, S., Mather, A., Illingworth, V., Brocki, J., Harrington, R. and Wells, A. (2004). Development and preliminary validation of the meta-cognitions questionnaire-adolescent version. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 18, 411422.Google Scholar
Evans, D. W., Milanak, M. E., Medeiros, B. and Ross, J. L. (2002). Magical beliefs and rituals in young children. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 33, 4358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farrell, L. and Barrett, P. (2006). Obsessive-compulsive disorder across developmental trajectory: cognitive processing of threat in children, adolescents and adults. British Journal of Psychology, 97, 95114.Google Scholar
Janeck, A. S., Calamari, J. E., Riemann, B. C. and Heffelfinger, S. K. (2003). Too much thinking about thinking? Metacognitive differences in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 17, 181195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knox, L. S., Albano, A. M. and Barlow, D. H. (1996). Parental involvement in the treatment of childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder: a multiple-baseline examination incorporating parents. Behaviour Therapy, 27, 93115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladouceur, R., Rheaume, J., Freeston, M. H., Aublet, F., Jean, K., Lachance, S., Langlors, F. and de Pokomandy-Morin, K. (1995). Experimental manipulation of responsibility: an analogue test for models of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 937946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Libby, S., Reynolds, S., Derisley, J. and Clark, S. (2004). Cognitive appraisals in young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 10761084.Google Scholar
Magnúsdóttir, I. and Smári, J. (2004). Are responsibility attitudes related to obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schoolchildren? Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 33, 2126.Google Scholar
March, J. S. (1995). Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy for children and adolescents with OCD: a review and recommendations for treatment. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 718.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
March, J. S. and Leonard, H. L. (1996). Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: a review of the past 10 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 12651273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mather, A. and Cartwright-Hatton, S. (2004). Cognitive predictors of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in adolescence: a preliminary investigation. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 743749.Google Scholar
Matthews, L., Reynolds, S. and Derisley, J. (2007). Examining cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder in adolescents. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 35, 149163.Google Scholar
Muris, P., Meesters, C., Rassin, E., Merckelbach, H. and Campbell, J. (2001). Thought-action fusion and anxiety disorders symptoms in normal adolescents. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 843852.Google Scholar
Pauls, D. L., Alsobrook, J. P., Goodman, W., Rasmussen, S. and Leckman, J. (1995). A family study of obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 7684.Google Scholar
Piacentini, J., Bergman, L., Keller, O. and McCracken, J. (2003). Functional impairment in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 13, 6169.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. J. (1993). Obsessions, responsibility and guilt. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 149154.Google Scholar
Rassin, E., Merckelbach, H., Muris, P. and Spaan, V. (1999). Thought-action fusion as a causal factor in the development of intrusions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 231237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M. (1999). Understanding and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 529552.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salkovskis, P. M., Richards, H. C. and Forrester, E. (1995). The relationship between obsessional problems and intrusive thoughts. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 23, 281299.Google Scholar
Van Oppen, P., De Haan, E., Van Balkom, A. J. L. M., Spinhoven, P., Hoogduin, K. and Van Dyck, R. (1995). Cognitive therapy and exposure in vivo in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 379390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wells, A. and Papageorgiou, C. (1998). Relationships between worry, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and meta-cognitive beliefs. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 899913.Google Scholar
Whittal, M. L., Thordarson, D. S. and McLean, P. D. (2005). Treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: cognitive behavior therapy vs. exposure and response prevention. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 11591576.Google Scholar
Williams, T. I., Salkovskis, P. M., Forrester, E. A. and Allsopp, M. A. (2002). Changes in symptoms of OCD and appraisal of responsibility during cognitive behavioural treatment: a pilot study. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 30, 6978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.