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Interested Services

About the OCD-Empower Trial

The OCD-Empower study is evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a brief, therapist-guided, parent-led online treatment (OSI-OCD) for children aged 5–12 years with OCD. We are looking to recruit up to six NHS sites across England to get involved.

We aim to recruit 48 families across all sites (so around 8 to 12 families per site).

Timeline: The trial will run for approximately 10 months. We aim for the trial to start in September 2025, with recruitment of families from within sites to finish around June 2026.

We are particularly keen to involve services that:

  • See children aged 5–12 years with OCD.
  • Have a ‘usual treatment’ for children who may have OCD/OCD symptoms.
  • Have clinicians that are able to deliver both ‘usual treatment’ or OSI-OCD (Sites will deliver the interventions).
  • Are interested in supporting research into new models of delivering care for OCD.

How services would be involved:

  1. Attend OSI-OCD Training: Participating staff (and supervisors, if they wish) will attend a one-day OSI-OCD training provided by the University of Oxford on Microsoft Teams.
  2. Identify potentially eligible families: Services will identify potentially eligible families and, with verbal consent, share contact details with the research team, and send interested families study information sheets and consent forms.
  3. Deliver OSI-OCD and usual treatment: Families will be randomised to receive OSI-OCD or usual treatment. Clinicians participating in the trial should be able to deliver both interventions.
  4. Attend OSI-OCD skills sessions: Clinicians will join OSI-OCD skills sessions to support delivery of OSI-OCD. These are additional to your usual supervision in services for these cases.
  5. complete brief treatment logs. After treatment ends, clinicians will be asked to complete a short follow-up questionnaire at 20 weeks post-randomisation.
  6. Complete brief treatment/supervision logs: Clinicians will be asked to record the time spent preparing for and delivering OSI-OCD and usual treatment.
  7. (Optional) Take part in an interview about your experiences of OSI-OCD: Clinicians will have the option to take part in an interview about their experiences of OSI-OCD towards the end of the trial.

For more information about the study, you can contact the research team via email: ocd-empower@psych.ox.ac.uk