From May 22 to 24, 2025, the Progressive Training Program on OCD Treatment (Advanced Class), sponsored by the National Center for Mental Disorders (Shanghai Mental Health Center) and the Shanghai Psychological Health Association, and organized by the Psychotherapy Institute of the National Center for Mental Disorders (Shanghai) and the OCD Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Shanghai Mental Health Center, was successfully held in Shanghai. Bringing together numerous experts and scholars in the field of OCD at home and abroad, this training program provided a valuable platform for improving the professional standards and clinical practice capabilities of domestic mental health professionals in OCD diagnosis and treatment.
As the first training program after the establishment of the International Collaborative Network on OCD of the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP) and the International Training Center for OCD Diagnosis and Treatment, this program focused on cutting-edge topics such as OCD discipline construction, comorbidity diagnosis and treatment, neuropsychological assessment, treatment of refractory OCD, and new research progress. It attracted professionals from mental health institutions and psychiatry departments of general hospitals across the country, jointly contributing to the improvement of OCD diagnosis and treatment capabilities.
During the training, Professor Elias Aboujaoude, a foreign expert, delivered a wonderful speech titled "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Review and Update". Combining the latest global research data with multi-center clinical cases, he deeply explored new international trends and breakthroughs in OCD diagnosis and treatment. Professor Aboujaoude's speech covered multiple aspects from the historical development, diagnostic criteria, etiology and pathological mechanisms of OCD, to epidemiology, course characteristics, treatment methods, and future directions, presenting a comprehensive and in-depth academic feast on OCD for the trainees. He showed the latest advances in psychological therapy for OCD, pointing out that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been proven to improve brain function, and computerized cognitive-behavioral therapy (cCBT) without therapist involvement has also been highly effective in this regard, effectively alleviating the shortage of medical resources. Meanwhile, as a new milestone treatment, cCBT also demonstrates the future development direction of computational psychiatry. In addition, explorations of cutting-edge physical therapy methods and interdisciplinary joint diagnosis and treatment models play important roles in the selection of future treatment approaches for OCD. This lecture not only broadened the international vision of the trainees, but also triggered in-depth thinking among the participants about new methods and technologies for OCD diagnosis and treatment.
This training built a precious learning and communication platform for frontline clinicians and psychotherapists. Through diverse theoretical and practical courses, trainees deepened their understanding of OCD and mastered advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies and norms, which is expected to promote the progress of the domestic OCD diagnosis and treatment field and lead it towards a new journey.
