Brief Consultation to Families of Treatment Refusers with Symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Does It Impact Family Accommodation and Quality of Life?

Familymembers are often directly and significantly impacted by the restrictive demands of OCD, a frequently disabling disorder. Familyaccommodation behaviors (i.e., doing things for or because of the OCD sufferer that a person would not normally do) are associated with dysfunction, including poorer treatment responses in OCD sufferers and greater distress in familymembers. Although evidence suggests family-based intervention can reduce symptoms in OCD sufferers who participate in treatment, there is a lack of research documenting the impact of interventions designed for the familiesof OCD treatment refusers (TR). Brief FamilyConsultation (BFC) was developed by our clinical team to help familiesrefocus their efforts on the things that they can realistically control and change (e.g., participation in compulsions). In this crossover study, twenty familiesrelated to an individual who exhibited OCD symptoms but had refused treatment were assigned to five phone sessions of either BFC or a psychoeducationcondition. Compared to this credible, attention-placebo control group (Brief Educational Support; BES), BFC (but not BES) resulted in reductions in familyaccommodation behavior, yet neither BFC nor BES resulted in improved quality of life for familymembers of treatment refusers. BFC is one of the first interventions to be evaluated for its ability to help familieswhen their loved ones with obsessive compulsive symptoms refuse treatment. This pilot study provides new insights for clinicians and researchers to better address the needs of these neglected families.