A systematic review of predictors and moderators of response to psychological therapies in OCD: Do we have enough empirical evidence to target treatment?

Fifty five percent (38/69) of relevant trials reported baseline factors associated with outcome; these encompassed clinical, demographic, interpersonal, OCD symptom-specific, psychological/psychosocial, and treatment-specific variables. Predictors were commonly assessed via a validated pre-randomization measure, though few trials adopted best practice by stating a priori hypotheses or conducting a test of interaction. Potential associations emerged between worse OCD treatment outcome and the following factors: hoarding pathology, increased anxiety and OCD symptom severity, certain OCD symptom subtypes, unemployment, and being single/not married. However, the applied utility of these analyses is currently limited by methodological weaknesses.