Publications by authors named "Tord Ivarsson"

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), characterized by recurring obsessions and compulsions, affects 1-3% of the childhood population, often leading to severe impairment and reduced quality of life. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is well-documented as first choice treatment for pediatric OCD. Traditionally delivered face-to-face CBT has limitations in terms of accessibility, availability, and quality of delivery.

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Objective: Children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are at risk for long-term adversity, but factors influencing long-term outcomes are unclear. A general factor of psychopathology, often referred to as the p factor, captures variance shared by all mental disorders and has predicted long-term outcomes in youth with anxiety and depressive disorders. The p factor has never been examined in relation to outcomes in pediatric OCD.

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Given diverse symptom expression and high rates of comorbid conditions, the present study explored underlying commonalities among OCD-affected children and adolescents to better conceptualize disorder presentation and associated features. Data from 830 OCD-affected participants presenting to OCD specialty centers was aggregated. Dependent mixture modeling was used to examine latent clusters based on their age- and gender adjusted symptom severity (as measured by the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale; CY-BOCS), symptom type (as measured by factor scores calculated from the CY-BOCS symptom checklist), and comorbid diagnoses (as assessed via diagnostic interviews).

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Objective: To examine relapse rates following remission in a 3-year follow-up study in pediatric patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in a first step, and either continued CBT or sertraline (randomized selection) in a second step.

Method: Participants (N = 269) fulfilled DSM-IV OCD criteria with a mean severity on the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) of 24.6 (SD = 5.

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Family accommodation (FA) involves the actions taken by family members, particularly parents, to accommodate a child´s obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, reducing distress or impairment. This behavior may maintain compulsive and avoidant behavior, preventing corrective learning or habituation. This study aims to investigate the prevalence and factors influencing FA in a large Scandinavian sample of children with OCD.

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The first aim of this study was to explore whether children with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and subclinical autistic traits can be differentiated from children with OCD without these traits based on clinical OCD-related characteristics, distinct OCD symptom patterns, and type of comorbidity. The second aim was to investigate whether autistic traits predict immediate and long-term outcome of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in pediatric OCD.The participants in this study were a total of 257 children and adolescents aged 7-17 years, recruited from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden as a part of the Nordic long-term OCD treatment study (NordLOTS).

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The present study aimed to: (a) identify latent class trajectories of OCD-related functional impairment, before, during and over three years after stepped-care treatment in children and adolescents with OCD; (b) describe these classes according to pretreatment characteristics; (c) identify predictors of trajectory class membership and (d) examine the relationship of functional impairment trajectory classes with OCD symptom severity trajectory classes. The sample consisted of 266 children and adolescents (aged 7-17 years) with OCD, participating in the Nordic long-term OCD treatment study. Latent class growth analysis was conducted using Child Obsessive-Compulsive Impact Scale-Revised (COIS-R) data from children and parents on seven assessment points over a three-year period.

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A recent study identified three distinct treatment-response trajectories in pediatric OCD where higher levels of contamination symptoms predicted a limited response to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). This study extends these findings by examining which specific symptoms characterize limited CBT response from baseline to 3-year follow-up, with an emphasis on contamination symptoms. The study sample comprised 269 pediatric patients with OCD, all receiving stepped-care treatment with manualized CBT.

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It is unknown if long-term remission for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients is associated with post-treatment OCD symptom severity. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if post-treatment symptom severity cut-offs can discriminate remitters from non-remitters in pediatric OCD patients during three years of follow-up. All participants (N = 269) from the Nordic Long-term OCD Treatment Study (NordLOTS) undergoing stepped-care treatment were included.

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Purpose: To assess the efficacy and safety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) in comparison with various control contingencies (e.g. pill placebo and cognitive behavioral treatment) for pediatric anxiety disorders.

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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by recurring obsessions and compulsions often with severe impairment affecting 1-3% of children and adolescents. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the therapeutic golden standard for paediatric OCD. However, face-to-face CBT is limited by accessibility, availability, and quality of delivery.

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Background: Studies on child and adolescent obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) indicate that symptom severity is similar across age, but significant age differences of symptom profile and comorbid disorders have been observed. These earlier studies have yielded mixed results, are methodologically heterogenous and tend to have fairly small sample sizes. The current study examines these differences in one of the largest samples to date and the first sample outside of an English-speaking cultural context.

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Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children can lead to a huge burden on the concerned patients and their family members. While successful state-of-the art cognitive behavioral interventions exist, there is still a lack of available experts for treatment at home, where most symptoms manifest. Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) could overcome these restrictions; however, studies about iCBT in children with OCD are rare and mostly target computerized self-help resources and only email contact with the therapist.

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The aims of the study were to estimate the prevalence of body dysmorphic symptoms in a sample of children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder, possible clinical correlates and whether BDD symptoms predict poorer treatment outcomes after cognitive behavioral therapy. The study included 269 children and adolescents with OCD, aged 7-17 years, from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, who were treated with 14 weekly sessions of manualized, exposure-based CBT. Twenty-one patients (7.

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Objective: A lack of universal definitions for response and remission in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has hampered the comparability of results across trials. To address this problem, we conducted an individual participant data diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis to evaluate the discriminative ability of the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) in determining response and remission. We also aimed to generate empirically derived cutoffs on the CY-BOCS for these outcomes.

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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the first choice of treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adolescents. However, there is often a lack of access to appropriate treatment close to the home of the patients. An internet-based CBT via videoconferencing could facilitate access to state-of-the-art treatment even in remote areas.

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To identify neurochemical factors measured pre-treatment that may predict cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) outcome, aiming at understanding possible causes of poor CBT response. 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used before treatment with CBT in treatment naïve 11-18 year-old patients with moderate-severe OCD. Diagnoses and assessment of OCD severity were based on semi-structured interviews.

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The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) are widely used measures of psychiatric symptoms and lately also adapted to the DSM. The incremental validity of adding the scales to each other has not been studied. We validated the DSM subscales for affective, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD), oppositional defiant (ODD), conduct problems (CD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in consecutively referred child and adolescent psychiatric outpatients (n = 267) against LEAD DSM-IV diagnoses based on the K-SADS-PL and subsequent clinical work-up.

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The present study aimed to investigate the long-term quality of life (QoL) in a large sample of pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients. The study included 220 pediatric OCD patients from the Nordic Long-term OCD Treatment Study (NordLOTS) who were evaluated at seven time points before, during, and after stepped-care treatment over a 3-year follow-up period. Data from three symptom severity trajectory classes formed the basis of the QoL evaluation: acute (n = 127, N = 147), slow (n = 46, N = 63), and limited responders (n = 47, N = 59).

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Evidence based treatments for pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are delivered with varying levels of expertise. This paper is part of the phase two series by the International OCD Accreditation Task Force (ATF) to advance a standardized high level of care globally. This paper presents specific knowledge and competencies recommended for specialized practice for pediatric psychopharmacologists working with OCD, developed by an international group of clinicians with extensive expertise in assessment and treatment of OCD.

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Background: The Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI) is a standardized intake and follow-up interview used in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Although it has shown good validity compared with other measures using parent reports, it has not yet been compared with diagnoses derived from a Longitudinal Expert All Data (LEAD) procedure, which includes information from separate diagnostic interviews with parent(s) and child. The aim was to compare the BCFPI evaluation in an outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry setting with an evaluation derived from a LEAD procedure.

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Background: To evaluate screening efficiency and suggest cut-offs for parent and child Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) and the short version (SMFQ) in unselected help seeking child- and adolescent psychiatric outpatients for subgroups of 6-12 versus 13-17 year olds and boys versus girls.

Method: Eligible for inclusion were newly admitted outpatients age 6-17 years (n = 5908) in four Swedish child- and adolescent psychiatry clinics. They were prompted consecutively and n = 307 accepted a specific day for assessment until time slots randomly were filled.

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Background: First-line treatments for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) include exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). No studies have thus far identified distinct classes and associated predictors of long-term symptom severity during and after treatment. Yet, these could form the basis for more personalized treatment in pediatric OCD.

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Objective: Identifying factors associated with early treatment response is important, because it can help allocate limited resources in psychiatric care more appropriately. This study examined baseline characteristics of participants with early response to exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Method: 269 participants with OCD, aged 7-17 years, were enrolled in a 14-weeks CBT program.

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