ArticlePsychotherapy and psychosomatics2026
Does High-Intensity Exercise Combined with Exposure Sessions Improve Treatment Outcomes in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? A Randomized Controlled Trial in Inpatients.
Article in Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
introductionPhysical exercise administered before or after exposure has been shown to have beneficial effects on treatment outcomes in anxiety- and trauma-related disorders. However, this approach has not yet been examined for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This randomized controlled trial investigated whether high-intensity exercise administered immediately after exposure therapy improves treatment outcomes in patients with OCD.
methodsNinety-seven inpatients with OCD participated in an 8-week exposure-based treatment phase during inpatient care, comprising 2 sessions per week, and were randomly assigned to either high-intensity exercise (ExpoHI) or low-intensity control (ExpoLI) administered immediately after a standardized exposure and response prevention session. OCD severity was assessed using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) at admission, discharge, and 6-month follow-up. The secondary outcomes included general psychopathological symptoms.
resultsExpoHI showed significantly greater reductions in Y-BOCS scores at discharge (between-group difference: -3.14 points, p = 0.009), corresponding to a moderate-to-large between-group effect size (Cohen's d = 0.76), which was maintained at the 6-month follow-up (p = 0.030; Cohen's d = 0.68). Responder rates at discharge were significantly higher in the ExpoHI group (85.4%) than in the ExpoLI group (61.2%) (p = 0.011), whereas remission rates did not differ between groups. ExpoHI also showed greater reductions in depressive symptoms at follow-up.
conclusionsHigh-intensity exercise immediately following exposure therapy produced greater reductions in obsessive-compulsive symptoms than the active control condition. These findings suggest that exercise may be a feasible adjunct for exposure-based treatment.
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