The pandemic has had a dramatic effect on the whole of the NHS, but it has also affected the availability of services for OCD. Not only that, but the nature of the pandemic will have had effects on many people with OCD; particularly those with contamination obsessions and cleaning compulsions.

In this article, I discuss what we have learned so far.

In this blog, I review six randomised, controlled trials comparing N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) versus placebo for the treatment of OCD. NAC is a glutamate regulator and has good tolerability. Four trials tested it in adults, and two tested it in children.

Earlier this year, a group of OCD experts and specialists published guidelines on managing OCD during COVID-19. It was quickly becoming evident that traditional exposure and response prevention (ERP) was going to be very difficult to deliver during a pandemic. We present some information on how the AIS has adapted to delivery of treatment during the coronavirus pandemic.

People sometimes wonder how severe patients being seen by a specialist service are. The following is a description of the severity of symptoms that individuals seen by the AIS present with, based on a relatively large sample of patients seen over the last 14 years.