Trial Information

"Association Splitting" Compared With Cognitive Remediation (CR) in Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD): a Randomized Controlled Trial

Association splitting is a new cognitive technique which aims at reducing obsessive
thoughts. It draws upon the so-called "fan effect" of associative priming. Transposing this
principle to the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), we hypothesized that the
sprouting of new and the strengthening of existing neutral associations to core OCD
cognitions will reduce their fear-evoking properties by depriving the chain of OCD-related
cognitions of associative strength. Patients with OCD are randomly allocated to either
associations splitting (AS) or cognitive remediation (CogPack training). Blind to treatment
assignment, both groups are assessed before intervention and eight weeks as well as six
months later with the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the
Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI-R) and cognitive tests. OCD severity derived from the
Y-BOCS and the OCI-R serves as the main outcome parameters. We also explore if AS changes
the OCD-related semantic networks with cognitive tasks. It is assumed that association
splitting will improve OCD severity to a greater extent than CogPack training.