ArticleEuropean psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists2024
The minimal important difference in obsessive-compulsive disorder: An analysis of double-blind SSRI trials in adults.
Article in European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Parenteral clomipramine for depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2026Pooled it
- Individual patient data meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors submitted for regulatory approval in adult obsessive-compulsive disorder.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2025Pooled it
- Does early non-improvement predict treatment failure in pharmacotherapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder? A diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis with individual participant data.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder.Current opinion in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Implementing modular competence-oriented psychotherapy in inpatient psychiatry: a three-year analysis of restraint and seclusion.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Assessing reliable change, MCID, treatment response, and remission using the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS) in youth with anxiety disorders.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2025Article
- Clinical predictors of short-term treatment response in stupor: a retrospective study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe change in symptoms necessary to be clinically relevant in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is currently unknown. In this study, we aimed to create an empirically validated threshold for clinical significance or minimal important difference (MID).
methodsWe analyzed individual participant data from short-term, double-blind, placebo-controlled registration trials of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in adult OCD patients. Data were collected from baseline to week 12. We used equipercentile linking to equate changes in the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale to changes in the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). We defined the MID as the YBOCS change linked to a CGI improvement of 3 (defined as "minimal improvement").
resultsWe included 7 trials with a total of 1216 patients. The CGI-scores and YBOCS were moderately to highly correlated. The MID corresponded to 4.9 YBOCS points (95% CI 4.4-5.4) for the full sample, or a 24% YBOCS-decrease compared to baseline. The MID varied with baseline severity, being lower in the group with mild symptoms and higher in the group with severe symptoms.
conclusionsBy linking the YBOCS to the CGI-I, this is the first study to propose an MID in OCD trials. Having a clearly defined MID can guide future clinical research and help interpretation of efficacy of existing interventions. Our results are clinician-based; however, there is further need for patient-reported outcomes as anchor to the YBOCS.
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