Online parent-led treatment for OCD in preadolescent children.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Feasibility of a randomised controlled trial to compare an adapted online parent-led treatment to treatment as usual for preadolescent children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
IRAS ID
354658
Contact name
Chloe Chessell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford, Research Governance, Ethics and Assurance
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
Childhood Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental health disorder that typically has its onset around the age of 10 years old and affects up to 3% of preadolescent children worldwide. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is an effective psychological treatment for preadolescent children with OCD, however existing treatments are often lengthy (i.e., requiring > 10-hours of specialist therapist support), substantially limiting the number of children who access effective treatment.
Online Support and Intervention (OSI) is a brief online, therapist supported, parent-led CBT intervention that has potential to substantially increase access to CBT for affected families. OSI only requires ~3 hours of direct therapist support and can be delivered by non-specialist therapists. To date, OSI has been evaluated for childhood anxiety problems and has been shown to be acceptable to families and therapists, effective, and likely to be cost-effective compared to usual treatment (mostly CBT) in services. OSI has not yet been evaluated for childhood OCD.
This project focuses on evaluating the feasibility of: (a) OSI adapted for parent/carers of preadolescent children (aged 5 – 12 years old) with OCD, and (b) a future definitive non-inferiority RCT comparing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of OSI for OCD to usual treatment in services. Specifically, this feasibility RCT will aim to (1a) establish likely recruitment rates, treatment completion/adherence rates, retention to research assessments, and identify usual treatment; (1b) identify appropriate clinical, functional, and economic outcome measures; (1c) explore indicators of clinical outcomes for the novel treatment arm at 20- and 32-weeks post-randomisation; (1d) explore the acceptability of the treatment and trial procedures; and (1e) describe any negative impacts of the treatment. An embedded process evaluation will explore (a) the implementation and acceptability; (b) mechanisms of impact; and (c) contextual factors that affect delivery, engagement, and outcomes for OSI for OCD to optimise the design of a future definitive non-inferiority trial RCT and subsequent wider implementation of OSI for OCD, if indicated.
To achieve this, 48 families with children aged 5–12 with OCD from up to 6 NHS mental health services will be recruited and randomised to receive OSI for OCD or usual treatment. Measures will be collected at multiple time points, including baseline, 20 weeks post-randomisation, and 32 weeks post-randomisation. Additionally, session-by-session measures will be collected for participants randomised to OSI for OCD. Qualitative interviews will be conducted with a subset of parents, children, and therapists, clinical supervisors, service leads and commissioners attached to participating services, to inform the process evaluation.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/EM/0159
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jul 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion