Relationship between markers of emotional reactivity and treatment outcomes for OCD: a comparative study between Intensive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (iCBT) and sertraline

• Grant number: 25/15039-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Roseli Gedanke Shavitt
• Grantee: Anelisa Veiga Moreira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psiquiatria Doutor Antonio Carlos Pacheco e Silva (IPq). Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (HCFMUSP). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/27250-3 - Neurocircuit-based investigation of obsessive-compulsive disorder: a contribution to the study of disease mechanisms and the development of new treatments, AP.TEM

Abstract

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by widely varying obsessions and compulsions related to changes in different neurocircuits. It has been proposed that treatments for OCD should be more focused on addressing the neurocircuit alterations underlying each symptom profile. This project will test these variations to investigate the effects of two treatments (sertraline and Intensive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - CBTi), which have been proposed to reduce hyperactivity in the fronto-limbic neurocircuit and improve OCD symptoms related to dysregulated fear, on electrophysiological markers of emotional reactivity mediated by the fronto-limbic neurocircuit. Participants will be 60 adult patients with OCD, 30 of whom received 12 weeks of sertraline treatment and 30 received 10 days of CBTi. Patientswith OCD will have their clinical symptom profile assessed before and after treatment.Electrophysiological markers of emotional reactivity will be recorded at the same time points.Statistical analysis will investigate the effects of both treatments on markers of emotional reactivity. (AU)