Welsh Health Planning Forum. Protocol for investment in health gain. Clomipramine and fluvoxamine had greater therapeutic efficacy than antidepressant drugs with no selective serotonergic properties. Concomitant high levels of depression at the outset did not seem necessary for clomipramine and SSRIs to improve obsessive-compulsive symptoms i . Four other recent meta-analyses have flaws but the conclusions are consistent in that clomipramine and SSRIs are more efficacious than placebo and other antidepressants for the treatment of OCD and the initial level of depression does not predict the response to medication ii .
Antidepressant drugs relieve symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The efficacy of drug treatment is broadly comparable to that of exposure and response prevention. However, relapse after withdrawal of medication is high, and long-term outcomes are clearly inferior to that obtained with exposure treatment i . Top 8.2e . Behaviour therapy is at least equivalent in efficacy to medication for reducing obsessive and compulsive symptoms i,ii and the gains are maintained over long-term follow up iii . Van Balkom AJ, van Oppen P, Vermeulen AW et al.