OCD Summer Treatment Program for Adolescents in Iceland (OCDtreatment)

Intensive OCD Summer Treatment Program for 12-18-year-old Adolescents in Iceland

The aim of the study is to examine the effectiveness of OCD treatment delivered in a group format for adolescents during a two week intensive summer treatment program.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Intensive cognitive-behavioral treatment with exposure / response prevention

Detailed Description

The present study evaluates the effectiveness of the Icelandic adaptation of the Pediatric OCD Summer Program, originally developed by the British Columbia Children's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. Specifically, it investigates the efficacy of this intensive intervention for Icelandic adolescents with OCD and their parents. The study also examines how executive functioning and emotion regulation may change over the course of treatment and influence outcomes, particularly among adolescents with co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD and/or autism. The program will be implemented annually as an open clinical trial to accumulate a larger dataset and address these research questions comprehensively.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 70
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Dagmar Kr. Hannesdottir, PhD; Phone Number: +354 525 4351; Email: dkh@hi.is

Study Locations

• Iceland
  • Reykjavik, Iceland, 102
    • University of Iceland
    • Contact: Dagmar Kr. Hannesdottir, PhD; Phone Number: +354 525 4351; Email: dkh@hi.is

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• OCD diagnosis
• Adolescents are fluent in Icelandic
• Parents are fluent in Icelandic or English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Intellectual disability
• Severe suicidal ideation
• Acute psychiatric disorders requiring immediate intervention, e.g. schizophrenia
• Severely impairing levels of autism prohibiting group participation

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Intensive group-based cognitive-behavioral treatment; This cognitive-behavioral exposure / response prevention program is delivered intensively over two consecutive weeks, consisting of daily 2.5-hour sessions across 10 days. Each group includes 6-8 adolescents, with every participant paired with an individual therapist for each session, though therapists rotate daily. At the outset, adolescents receive workbooks and psychoeducation on the nature of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, along with strategies to manage symptoms and reduce impairment. The primary focus of the program is individualized exposure exercises conducted with a therapist during each session. Designed for adolescents aged 12-18, the program also includes parent sessions, in which parents learn to manage anxiety-driven behaviors at home and reduce family accommodation.

Behavioral: Intensive cognitive-behavioral treatment with exposure / response prevention; This cognitive-behavioral exposure / response prevention program is delivered intensively over two consecutive weeks, consisting of daily 2.5-hour sessions across 10 days. Each group includes 6-8 adolescents, with every participant paired with an individual therapist for each session, though therapists rotate daily. At the outset, adolescents receive workbooks and psychoeducation on the nature of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, along with strategies to manage symptoms and reduce impairment. The primary focus of the program is individualized exposure exercises conducted with a therapist during each session. Designed for adolescents aged 12-18, the program also includes parent sessions, in which parents learn to manage anxiety-driven behaviors at home and reduce family accommodation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF)	A questionnaire designed to assess executive functioning in children and adolescents aged 5 to 18 years (Gioia et al., 2000). The questionnaire consists of 86 items with three response options: never = 1, sometimes = 2, and often = 3. A higher score on the BRIEF indicates greater executive functioning difficulties. The first 72 items are divided into eight clinical subscales that measure different aspects of executive function. These clinical subscales fall under two broader indices: the Behavioral Regulation Index (BRI) and the Metacognition Index (MI), which together form a Global Executive Composite (GEQ) score. The psychometric properties of the Icelandic version have proven to be acceptable.	Baseline, 1 week after treatment, 6 month follow-up, 12 month follow-up
Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS)	This is a semi-structured interview (Scahill et al., 1997) intended to assess the symptoms and severity of obsessive compulsive disorder in children and adolescents aged 6-17 years. The scores range from 0-40, a higher score indicating more OCD related impairment with a clinical cut-off score of 15. The interview is conducted either with both the child and parent present or, in some cases, separately. The interview method depends, among other things, on the child´s age and developmental level. This interview is widely used, both for clinical purposes and in research, and has been translated into many languages. Today, it is considered the gold standard for assessing the severity of OCD symptoms and treatment response and is the most commonly and widely accepted tool for such evaluations (Mataix-Cols et al, 2016; Skarphedinsson et al, 2017). The interview has demonstrated strong psychometric properties (Cook et al., 2015; Højgaard et al., 2017).	Baseline, 1 week after treatment, 6 month follow-up, 12 month follow-up
The Child Obsessive-Compulsive Impact Scale (COIS-R)	This is a 55-item questionnaire that assesses functional impairment due to OCD in the child's most important environments (home, school, and social situations) (Piacentini et al, 2007). Each question is rated on a Likert scale from 0-3 and a higher score indicates more OCD related impairment. The adolescents will complete the child/adolescent form and parents will complete the parent form.	Baseline, 1 week after treatment, 6 month follow-up, 12 month follow-up
Revised Children 's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS)	This is a commonly used questionnaire to screen for anxiety and depressive disorders and to assess changes following an intervention. The RCADS is a 47-item questionnaire designed for parents and children (ages 8-17) and includes the following scales: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Depressive Symptoms. Items are rated on a four-point scale and higher scores indicate more difficulties: 0 = never, 1 = sometimes, 2 = often, 3 = always. The Icelandic version has acceptable psychometric properties in both general and clinical populations.	Baseline, 1 week after treatment, 6 month follow-up, 12 month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Family Accommodation Scale for OCD- Self-Rated (FAS-SR)	This is a 19-item scale developed to assess the extent to which the family attempts to accommodate the child´s symptoms to reduce distress. The scale is completed by parents and includes items such as how much the family tries to reassure the child, alter plans and activities, or help the child to avoid objects, places, or situations that cause distress. Scores range from 0-48 and higher scores indicate more family accommodation. The scale has acceptable psychometric properties, including internal consistency of 0.90 and high correlation with the standardized Family Accommodation Interview (Pinto et al., 2013).	Baseline, 1 week after treatment, 6 month follow-up, 12 month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Iceland

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Selles RR, Belschner L, Negreiros J, Lin S, Schuberth D, McKenney K, Gregorowski N, Simpson A, Bliss A, Stewart SE. Group family-based cognitive behavioral therapy for pediatric obsessive compulsive disorder: Global outcomes and predictors of improvement. Psychiatry Res. 2018 Feb;260:116-122. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.11.041. Epub 2017 Nov 15.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): May 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2030
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2033

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 6, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 6, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): March 11, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 18, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 17, 2026
• Last Verified: October 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Adolescents; Obsessive-compulsive disorder; Exposure and response prevention; intensive cognitive-behavioral treatment
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: UI-2025-OCDsummerprogram

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: As the study includes repeated measures of a clinical child population, parts of the data will be classified as sensitive personal data and thus restricted by the permit from the National Bioethics Committee of Iceland.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No