ocd treatment - eval

• support

  a strength of drug therapy is that it is effective at tackling ocd symptoms. for example, soomro et al reviewed 17 studies comparing ssris to placebos in the treatment of ocd. all 17 studies showed significantly better results for ssris than for the placebo conditions. this suggests that drugs can help most people treat ocd
• counter

  although the use of drugs is effective for most, a significant minority receive no benefit and/or may suffer side-effects: weight gain, dry mouth, sexual dysfunction and loss of memory. coming off a drug is a slow process in which the dosage has to be gradually reduced over a period of six months - risk of relapse
• alternative

  cbt can be equally effective in treating ocd and can be along term solution without side effects. this suggests that there are alternative ways of treating ocd which do not include use of drugs
• practical applications

  drugs are cost-effective and non-disruptive. drug treatments are cheap in comparison to psychological treatments and, unlike psychotherapy, they are non-disruptive to patient’s lives
• i&d

  unreliable evidence for drug treatments. if drug companies sponsor the research they may decide to suppress any results that do not support the drug they are marketing. currently many drug companies do not publish all of their results and may indeed be suppressing evidence. this suggests that the data on the effectiveness of drugs may not be trustworthy