“On My Own, but Not Alone” - Adolescents’ Experiences of Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Introduction: Childhood Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a prevalent and impairing condition that can be effectively treated with Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). However, a majority of children and adolescents do not have access to CBT. Internet-delivered CBT (ICBT) has been suggested as a way to increase availability to effective psychological treatments. Yet, the research on ICBT in children and adolescents has been lagging behind significantly both when it comes to quantitative as well as qualitative studies. The aim of the current study was to describe the experience of ICBT in adolescents with OCD. Method: Eight adolescents with OCD that had received ICBT were interviewed with qualitative methodology regarding their experiences of the intervention. Data was summarized into thematic categories. Results: Two overarching themes were identified, autonomy and support, each consisting of three primary themes (self-efficacy, flexibility, secure self-disclosure and clinician support, parental support, identification/normalization, respectively). Conclusions: The experiential hierarchical model that was identified in this study is, in part, transferrable to previous research. In addition, it highlights the need of further study of important process variables of ICBT in young patient populations.