This report presents the preliminary results of a 1-year, single-arm open (ie, nonrandomized) trial of a novel telehealth cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for pediatric patients with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) awarded alongside an existing comparative effectiveness study (referred to hereafter as the “main study”). Use of CBT for anxious youth is an established, evidence-based intervention and the first-line treatment for child anxiety. Exposure therapy is the primary component of CBT for anxious youth and involves learning to gradually face fears. The main study seeks to test a novel home-delivery model using bachelor’s degree-level staff to provide adjunctive treatment under PhD psychologist supervision. The comparison arm is standard outpatient treatment with a psychologist (“office”). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated changes in hospital policy, we temporarily halted participant recruitment to these 2 in-person treatment arms in March 2020 and opened enrollment to patient-centered telehealth treatment (N = 46), modeled after our home treatment arm but occurring fully remotely.
