title: Competitive Memory Training (COMET) for OCD: a self-treatment approach to obsessions.
abstract: Competitive Memory Training (COMET) is a cognitive intervention that aims to change the maladaptive cognitive-emotional networks underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). COMET has not been previously tried as a self-help intervention. The present study tested the preliminary feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of COMET for OCD implemented as a self-help intervention. Sixty-five participants with OCD recruited through online OCD self-help fora completed an online baseline assessment including measures of OCD symptoms, self-esteem, and depression. Participants were randomly assigned to either COMET or a wait-list control group. All participants were approached 4 weeks later to complete an online post-assessment. There was no evidence for a greater decline of OCD symptoms or depression under COMET. When analyses were limited to only those participants who reported reading the entire manual at least once, self-esteem was higher at post-assessment in the COMET group. Although 78.1% of patients in the COMET group rated it as appropriate for self-administration, only 56.5% performed COMET exercises regularly and 26.4% read the entire manual at least once. The feasibility and effectiveness of COMET as a self-help internet intervention for OCD was not supported in this study. Further work is needed to better understand if modifications to our implementation of COMET may yield improved outcomes.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf , Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Brooke C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Charlotte E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Wittekind
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Talhof
authors.forename: Kees
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Korrelboom
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moritz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods*; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cognitive therapy; obsessions; obsessive-compulsive disorder; self-esteem; self-help