The role of treatment expectancy in youth receiving exposure-based CBT for obsessive compulsive disorder

► We examined child, parent, and therapist expectancy for CBT for OCD. ► Increased child/therapist expectation correlated with greater improvement after CBT. ► Higher expectancy was linked to lower attrition and better homework compliance. ► Lower expectations were found in youth with depressive or externalizing symptoms. ► Pre-treatment OCD severity did not lower expectations for CBT.