Treatment Outcomes for Children’s Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
As of July 2016, six children (4 boys, 2 girls) ranging in ages 11 to 17 have been treated in our IOP. The average length of a full IOP program was 91 days (3 months) and ranged from 58 to 115 days (2 to 4 months). The average number of session hours per week was 13 and ranged from 9 to 21 hours.
At the outset of their IOP program all 6 children were unable to attend school because of the severity of their OCD. Of the 5 children who completed the program, 4 were able to achieve full time school attendance and 1 achieved part time school attendance by the end of the program. The graph below shows the average OCD severity score as measured by the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) at the start and end of the program. Data come from the 4 children who both completed the program and were given the CY-BOCS at both the start and end of the program. As can be seen, the average child began treatment with severe-to-extreme OCD symptoms and ended the program with moderate OCD symptoms. A reduction in CY-BOCS scores of at least 25% indicates a significant response to treatment while a reduction of at least 45% to 50% or a CY-BOCS score of 14 or below indicates remission of OCD1. Based on these criteria 3 out of 4 children were treatment responders by the end of the program, with 1 of these 3 also achieving full remission. The 1 child who did not meet response criteria by the end of the IOP program met treatment response criteria after continued sessions in regular outpatient treatment.
1Storch, E. A., Lewin, A. B., De Nadai, A. S., & Murphy, T. K. (2010). Defining treatmentresponse and remission in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A signal detection analysis of the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 49(7), 708-717.
