ArticleJMIR mental health2021
Comparing Effectiveness Between a Mobile App Program and Traditional Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evaluation Study.
Article in JMIR mental health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of the mHealth App Intellect in Improving Subclinical Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in University Students: Randomized Controlled Trial With a 4-Week Follow-Up.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2024Trial
- Cognitive Training via a Mobile Application to Reduce Obsessive-Compulsive-Related Distress and Cognitions During the COVID-19 Outbreaks: A Randomized Controlled Trial Using a Subclinical Cohort.Behavior therapy · 2022Trial
- Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder via Mental Health Technology.The Psychiatric clinics of North America · 2026Review
- Design and construction of internet-based cognitive-behavioural therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in Iran: A feasibility study.Internet interventions · 2026Article
- A randomized clinical trial of app cognitive behavior therapy vs. HealthWatch for obsessive compulsive disorder.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Feasibility of Using ChatGPT to Generate Exposure Hierarchies for Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.Behavior therapy · 2025Article
- Benefits and barriers associated with using cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Evaluation of the impact of a digital care navigator on increasing patient registration with digital mental health interventions in routine care.Internet interventions · 2024Article
- Psychotherapies and digital interventions for OCD in adults: What do we know, what do we need still to explore?Comprehensive psychiatry · 2023Review
- The Effectiveness of Serious Games for Alleviating Depression: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JMIR serious games · 2022Review
- Gaming My Way to Recovery: A Systematic Scoping Review of Digital Game Interventions for Young People's Mental Health Treatment and Promotion.Frontiers in digital health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study proposes a digital program for the treatment of mental illness that could increase motivation and improve learning outcomes for patients. Several studies have already applied this method by using an exposure and response prevention-inspired serious game to treat patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
objectiveWe hypothesized that a mobile cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) program would be as effective in treating OCD as traditional offline CBT. In addition, the treatment efficacy in response to mobile CBT for OCD might be associated with increased brain activity within the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) tract.
methodsThe digital CBT treatment program for OCD, OCfree, consists of 6 education sessions, 10 quests, and 7 casual games. Information was gathered from 27 patients with OCD (15 offline CBT and 12 OCfree CBT). During the 6-week intervention period, changes in clinical symptoms and brain function activity were analyzed.
resultsThere was no significant difference in the change in OCD symptoms and depressive symptoms between the two groups. However, the OCfree group showed greater improvement in anxiety symptoms compared to the offline CBT group. Both offline CBT and OCfree CBT increased the functional connectivity within the CSTC tract in all patients with OCD. However, CBT using OCfree showed greater changes in brain connectivity within the thalamus and insula, compared to offline CBT.
conclusionsOCfree, an OCD treatment app program, was effective in the treatment of drug-naïve patients with OCD. The treatment effects of OCfree are associated with increased brain connectivity within the CSTC tract. Multisensory stimulation by education, quests, and games in OCfree increases the activity within the thalamus and insula in patients with OCD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.