Efficacy of the app esTOCma throughout obsessive-compulsive disorder contents: a post hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Purpose Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disabling mental health condition associated with significant delays in professional help-seeking. Stigma and poor mental health literacy (MHL) contribute to these delays and vary depending on OCD symptom dimensions. This post hoc analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the mobile application esTOCma in reducing stigma and improving MHL and intention to seek help across autogenous and reactive OCD symptom dimensions. Methods A post hoc analysis was conducted using pre- and post-intervention data from 208 participants from a previous crossover randomized controlled trial. Participants had been assigned to a vignette describing either autogenous or reactive OCD symptoms and to the experimental or control group. Changes in stigma (Attribution Questionnaire, Social Distance Scale), MHL (Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire), and help-seeking intention (General Help-Seeking Questionnaire) were assessed using a 2 (Group: experimental and control) × 2 (Time: T0 [pre-intervention] and T1 [post-intervention]) mixed factorial analyses of variance performed for each symptom dimension (i.e., autogenous and reactive OCD symptoms dimensions). Results Following the intervention, significant and similar improvements in stigma, social distance, MHL, and help-seeking intention were observed in the experimental group for both OCD content dimensions. These differences were not observed in the control group. Conclusions This post hoc study suggests that esTOCma is an effective tool for reducing stigma and misinformation about both autogenous and reactive OCD symptoms in the general community. The original study was registered on ClinicalsTrials.gov on January 11th, 2022 (NCT04777292).