Cognitive retraining in obsessive-compulsive disorder and its effectiveness.

This article investigates the effectiveness of cognitive retraining (CR) as an adjunctive treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), focusing on its impact on symptoms, dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs, thought fusion, and quality of life. In a pre-post intervention study conducted in India, 20 patients with OCD were divided into an experimental group receiving pharmacotherapy, psychoeducation, and a 6-week home-based CR program, and a waitlist control group receiving pharmacotherapy and psychoeducation only. Results showed that the experimental group experienced significant improvements in OCD symptom severity (measured by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale), reductions in thought fusion (assessed by the Thought Fusion Instrument), and dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs (evaluated by the Metacognition Questionnaire), along with enhanced psychological quality of life (measured by WHOQOL-BREF), compared to the waitlist group. The study suggests that CR may be a valuable, less intensive behavioral intervention to complement pharmacotherapy in OCD management, especially when traditional psychotherapies are not feasible, though findings are limited by small sample size and lack of long-term follow-up.