treating OCD

• P: there is considerable evidence for the effectiveness of drug treatments.

  E: a randomised control trial is used to compare the effectiveness of the drug versus a placebo. Soomro reviewed 17 studies of the use of SSRIs with OCD patients and found them to be more effective than placebos in reducing the symptoms of OCD.

  L: therefore, while drug treatments have been shown to be effective in the short term, the lack of long-term data is a limitation
• P: one of the great appeals of using drug therapy is that it requires little input from the user in terms of effort and time

  E: therapies such as CBT require the patient to attend regular meetings and put thought into tackling their problems. drug therapies are cheaper because they require little monitoring and cost less than psychological treatments.

  L: these benefits means that drug therapies are more economical for the health service than psychological therapies
• P: all drugs have side effects, some more sever than others

  E: nausea, headache and insomnia are common side effects of SSRIs. Although not severe, they are often are enough to make a patient stop taking a drug. tricyclic antidepressants tend to have more side effects than SSRIs so are only used when SSRIs are not effective.

  L: these side effects, and the possibility of addiction, therefore limit the usefulness of drugs as treatments for OCD