Stepped Care for Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

CBT with EX/RP is a psychosocial treatment that incorporates exposure with ritual prevention.

In the CBT stepped-care program, patients are first provided with a less expensive, less intrusive, and more accessible option that resembles quality community care (e.g., self-administered EX/RP combined with counseling to address medication issues, life stress, and motivational enhancement). Patients who fail to respond to this initial treatment progress to a more intensive treatment (e.g., therapist-administered EX/RP).