Four-day therapy remains effective for a year in OCD
A small German study found clear improvements after a year, but had no control group.
An intensive four-day treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder appears to remain effective after twelve months. The researchers stress that their study was small and uncontrolled.
The study was published on 25 June 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One. Researchers from, among others, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf followed 58 adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder who received the so-called Bergen 4-Day Treatment.
The treatment is a concentrated form of exposure and response prevention. Under guidance, patients are exposed to feared thoughts or situations and then practise refraining from the associated compulsive ritual. The aim is for the anxiety to subside without the ritual being necessary.
One year after treatment, 69 per cent of participants met the criteria for treatment response. Remission occurred in 51 per cent, and 78 per cent showed, according to the researchers, reliable clinical improvement. Four participants, 7 per cent of the group, were admitted to hospital in the following year.
The findings are relevant because long-term psychological treatment is not available to everyone. A short, intensive approach could improve access if it proves feasible in other healthcare systems. However, the study does not show that four days is sufficient for all patients.
It is important that all participants received treatment. There was no waiting-list or control group against which the results could be compared. As a result, it cannot be determined precisely what proportion of the improvement was caused by the treatment and what proportion was related to selection, expectations or other care during the subsequent period.
The study group was also limited to 58 adults in a single German treatment setting. The researchers report results after twelve months, but this says nothing yet about longer-term effects or application among children, older people or people with complex coexisting conditions.
The publication is peer-reviewed and provides new data on longer-term effects outside Norway, where the method was originally developed. It is therefore an indication that concentrated therapy should be studied further, not proof that standard treatment can be replaced. The study also provides no individual treatment advice.
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This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
All research findings and limitations were checked directly against the peer-reviewed publication. The text avoids concluding that the therapy works for everyone or replaces standard care.
- confirmed The study followed 58 adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder. — This is stated in the article’s methods description. source
- confirmed The treatment consisted of a concentrated form of exposure and response prevention. — PLOS One describes B4DT as brief, concentrated exposure and response prevention. source
- confirmed After twelve months, 69 per cent met the criteria for treatment response and 51 per cent for remission. — These percentages appear in the article’s results section. source
- confirmed The study had no control group. — The methods state that it was an uncontrolled study. source
Editor's note
The study is peer-reviewed and open access, but concerns only 58 adults without a control group. The results are therefore promising but cannot automatically be generalised.Sources
More on this in Dutch media
- NU.nl — „dwangstoornis ocd”
- De Telegraaf — „dwangstoornis ocd”
- AD — „dwangstoornis ocd”