RECRUITING Not applicable ClinicalTrials.gov

Project EMPOWER-OCD

Sponsor: Boston University Charles River Campus • ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT07158801

Registry updated: 2026-10-08

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Description

This research study aims to adapt and evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of Project EMPOWER-OCD for socioeconomically diverse caregivers of patients with OCD. Designed to reduce obstacles (e.g. months long time commitment, high cost, transportation) to treatment that caregivers may be particularly prone to, project EMPOWER-OCD will provide targeted intervention of accommodation - a well-established, potentially modifiable risk factor for child anxiety, OCD, and its related disorders - in a single, self-guided session via an online format.

Interventions

Project EMPOWER-OCD (Behavioral)
Project EMPOWER-OCD is a web-based intervention for caregivers that takes about 20-25 minutes to complete that reduces accommodation. The program is drawing from an empirically supported intervention, Project EMPOWER, and will be adapted for the OCD population pending stakeholder input during phase 1 and include 5 elements: (1) an introduction to the program's rationale; (2) psychoeducation around OCD-driven avoidance, along with how caregiver accommodation can inadvertently maintain these avoidance patterns; (3) information on how caregivers can better identify patterns of avoidance, validate, and encourage approach behaviors instead; (4) creation of an "action plan" to promote approach behavior and reducing avoidance; (5) a vignette exercise in which caregivers read about another case and provide possible solutions based on what they learned. Resources for finding mental health treatment for OCD are presented at the end.
Project CARE (Behavioral)
To evaluate the effects of Project EMPOWER-OCD, we will compare it to an active psychoeducation-based SSI that provides general information on caregiving and caregiver mental health. The intervention includes 5 elements that mirror Project EMPOWER: (1) introduction to the rationale for the program; (2) introduce the concept of caregiving across relationships and situations; (3) present broad information on typical development processes; (4) helping caregivers identify their own role and reflect on how caregiving looks like in their life (5) vignette exercise where caregivers identify caregiving roles, prompting reflection on roles. This active comparator intentionally does not include any psychoeducational components explicitly designed to reduce accommodation of anxiety, OCD, and its related disorders.

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria: * be a caregiver for at least one individual with OCD, defined as living in the same household and providing daily care * be 18 years old or older * the individual they are caring for have clinically significant OCD symptoms, indicated by a score a 16 or above on the self-reported Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale - Parent Report (CY-BOCS-PR) * speak, read, and write English * not be in concurrent family-based CBT treatment for the patient's OCD. Exclusion Criteria: * does not speak English * younger than 18 years old * participation in concurrent family-based CBT treatment for the patient's OCD.

Conditions

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Locations

Boston University — Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Official Source

Data sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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