May 12, 2021 Internet- and smartphone-based care helped with pediatric OCD, depression in adults Mental health interventions delivered online or via a smartphone showed promise for treating kids with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and adults with depressive symptoms as well as comorbid hypertension or diabetes, researchers reported. In a non-inferiority trial of participants with a mean age 13.4 years, the six-month Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) score was 11.57 points in the so-called “stepped-care” group versus 10.57 points in the face-to-face treatment group (control) for an estimated mean difference of 0.91 points (1-sided 97.5% CI −∞ to 3.28, P=0.02 for non-inferiority), according to Kristina Aspvall, PhD, of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Research Centre in Stockholm, and co-authors.