Using Technology to Enhance Treatment Outcomes for Pediatric OCD

ERP is an efficacious treatment for OCD. However, many youth with OCD face barriers to access, and others do not respond to traditional ERP. Technology may help address barriers and augment pediatric ERP treatment. This review summarizes ways technology has been used to disseminate knowledge about pediatric OCD, facilitate access to synchronous telemedicine, offer largely self-guided electronic treatment programs, and enhance traditional ERP.

Professionals leverage the internet and social media to increase OCD awareness. Synchronous telemedicine and internet self-guided programs typically yield non-inferior outcomes to traditional ERP. Existing apps/games that employ evidence-based skills may be used to enhance traditional ERP, but limited data are available. There is minimal work on the use of virtual reality or psychophysiological data acquisition with this purpose in mind.

Technology may help youth with OCD learn evidence-based skills with fewer barriers. Future work is needed to evaluate the efficacy of existing technologies.