Adding motivational interviewing and thought mapping to cognitive-behavioral group therapy: results from a randomized clinical trial

Objective: Recent factor-analytic studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder identified consistent symptom dimensions. This study was designed in order to observe which obsessive compulsive symptom dimensions could be changed by adding two individual sessions of motivational interviewing and thought mapping of cognitive-behavioral group therapy using a randomized clinical trial. Method: Forty outpatients with a primary diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder were randomly assigned to receive cognitive-behavioral group therapy (control group) or motivational interviewing+thought mapping plus cognitive-behavioral group therapy. To evaluate changes in symptom dimensions, the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale was administered at baseline and after treatment. Results: At post-treatment, there were statistically significant differences between cognitive-behavioral group therapy and motivational interviewing+thought mapping+cognitive-behavioral group therapy groups in the mean total Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale score, and in the contamination and aggression dimension score. Hoarding showed a statistical trend towards improvement. Conclusion: These findings suggest that adding motivational interviewing+thought mapping to cognitive-behavioral group therapy can facilitate changes and bring about a decrease in the scores in different obsessive-compulsive disorder symptom dimensions, as measured by the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Nonetheless, additional trials are needed to confirm these results.