One strength of drug treatment for OCD is good evidence for its effectiveness:
Soomro et al. reviewed 17placebo studies and found that all studies showed significantly better outcomes for SSRIs than for placebo conditions
Typically symptoms reduce for around 70% of people taking SSRIs - for the remaining 30%, most can be helped by either alternative drugs or combinations of drugs and psychotherapy
Therefore, drugs appear to be helpful for most people with OCD
Counterpoint to evidence of effectiveness
There is evidence to suggest that drug treatments may not be the most effective available:
Skapinakis et al. carried out a systematic review of outcome studies and found that both cognitive and behavioural therapies were more effective than SSRIs in the treatment of OCD
Therefore, drugs may not be the optimum treatment for OCD
Cost-effective and non-disruptive
One strength of drugs is that they are cost-effective and non-disruptive to people's lives:
They are cheap compared to psychological treatments because thousands of tablets can be manufactured in the time it takes to conduct one session of therapy
It is therefore good value for the NHS
Therefore, drugs are popular with many people with OCD and their doctors
Serious side-effects
One limitation of drug treatments for OCD is that drugs can have potentially serious side-effects:
A small minority will get no benefit
Some experience side-effects such as indigestion, blurred vision and loss of libido
For those taking clomipramine, side-effects are more common and can be more serious - more than 1 in 10 people experience erection problems and weight gain
Therefore, some people have a reduced quality of life as a result of taking drugs and may stop taking them altogether, meaning the drugs cease to be effective