Skip to main content
ABCT 2024 58th Annual Convention Main banner
Psychology Tools Ad
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Back
Evaluation ViewAttendees 5

Dissemination & Implementation Science
Symposia

Symposium 57 - Concentrating treatment for rapid improvement and durable gains: Status and Outcomes of the International Dissemination of the Bergen 4-Day Treatment Approach

Friday, November 15, 2024
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EST
Location: Liberty C, Level 3, Downtown Marriott
CE: 1.5

Keywords: Treatment Development, Dissemination, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
Level of Familiarity: All
Recommended Readings: Kvale G, Hansen B, Hagen K, et al. (2020). Effect of D-Cycloserine on the Effect of Concentrated Exposure and Response Prevention in Difficult-to-Treat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 3(8):e2013249. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.13249,  

Kvale, G., Hansen, B., Björgvinsson, T., Børtveit, T., Hagen, K., Haseth, S., Beate Kristensen, U., Launes, G., Ressler, K. J., Solem, S., Strand, A., van den Heuvel, O. A., & Öst, L. G. (2018). Successfully treating 90 patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in eight days: The Bergen 4-day treatment. BMC Psychiatry, 18, 1-9.


,  

Bjarne Hansen, Gerd Kvale, Kristen Hagen, Audun Havnen & Lars-Göran Öst (2019) The Bergen 4-day treatment for OCD: four years follow-up of concentrated ERP in a clinical mental health setting, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 48:2, 89-105, DOI: 10.1080/16506073.2018.1478447


,  

Launes G, Hagen K, Sunde T, Öst L-G, Klovning I, Laukvik I-L, Himle JA, Solem S, Hystad SW, Hansen B and Kvale G. (2019). Randomized Controlled Trial of Concentrated ERP, Self-Help and Waiting List for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Bergen 4-Day Treatment. Front. Psychol. 10:2500. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02500


,  

Hjelle K, Eide T, Thorsen A, Kvale G, Hagen K, Snorrason I, Björgvinsson T, Hansen B. (2023). The Bergen 4-day treatment for panic disorder: adapting to COVID-19 restrictions with a hybrid approach of face-to-face and videoconference modalities. BMC Psychiatry. Aug 8;23(1):570. doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-05062-7


The Bergen 4-day treatment (B4DT) is a concentrated exposure treatment (cET) for OCD that was developed in Bergen, Norway, just over 10 years ago. The state of care for OCD prior to that was dire. A national research study, evaluating current status, found that OCD patients received treatment on average for 14 months (and this treatment was ongoing), with 88% reporting the absence of evidence-based treatment by providers. Fortunately, mental health care delivery was transformed in Norway to be more evidence-based, and the B4DT was developed in the wake of these efforts. The approach builds on five decades of empirical research, particularly in CBT and ERP. Since its creation, the B4DT has been shown to be highly effective in treating OCD. Despite its short duration, gains appear durable: About 70% of patients are meaningfully improved at the 12-month and 4-year follow-up. The B4DT approach has received tremendous attention around the world. For example, in October 2018, Dr. Bjarne Hansen (the developer of B4DT) was selected by Time magazine as one of “The Health Care 50: Fifty People Transforming Health Care in 2018.” Given its time efficiency, B4DT represents a potentially transformative treatment, with the potential to meaningfully improve health care delivery in the U.S. and other countries where it is being implemented. Over 3000 patients with OCD have been effectively treated with the B4DT in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, Finland, Singapore, and the USA. All studies strongly support the effectiveness of this 4-day approach. Given the promise of this approach to deliver time-limited treatment with lasting effects, international dissemination plans are actively being implemented. Teams from Australia, Kenya, and Ecuador have signed up and will be trained in the B4DT, completing OCD treatment pilots in 2024. In this symposium, we will report on these international dissemination efforts as well as the initial national implementation of evidence-based OCD treatment in Norway. We will discuss cultural dissemination challenges, clinical treatment outcomes, and key factors/techniques used in B4DT. We will report how this concentrated format provides a unique opportunity for collecting biological samples and conducting biological research studies; to highlight this, we will present findings from functional and structural MRI, genetics, and epigenetics studies already conducted utilizing the B4DT format. Furthermore, we will highlight how this framework has uniquely facilitated clinical training, as well as clinical development and research.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Describe the background, development of the Bergen 4-Day Treatment
  2. Describe how B4DT framework (as in it concentrated treatment delivery) uniquely facilitated, training, clinical development and research
  3. Describe the outcomes of the International Dissemination of the Bergen 4-Day Treatment Approach
  4. Discuss the transformation of Norwegian Mental Health System as it relates to implementing evidence based treatment for OCD
  5. Describe the structure of the Bergen 4-Day Treatment
  6. List the main findings of the first pilot study of Bergen 4-Day Treatment for patientss with OCD in the United States
  7. Discuss how concentrated format provides a unique opportunity for collecting biological samples and conducting biological research studies

Presentations:

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EST
    (SYM 57) Transformation of Norwegian Mental Health Delivery: The Development of the Bergen 4-day Treatment for OCD

    Speaker: Bjarne Hansen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Bergen

    Co-author: Throstur Bjorgvinsson, ABPP, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Kristen Hagen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EST
    (SYM 57) National Implementation of Bergen 4-day OCD Treatment Across Multiple Clinical Settings in Norway

    Speaker: Kristen Hagen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – Norwegian University of Science and Technology

    Co-author: Bjarne Hansen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Bergen

    Co-author: Throstur Bjorgvinsson, ABPP, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EST
    (SYM 57) Harnessing Clinical Psychology, Neuroimaging, Genetics and Epigenetics to Understand Response to B4DT for OCD and Anxiety Disorders

    Speaker: Anders L. Thorsen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – Haukeland University Hospital

    Co-author: Bjarne Hansen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Bergen

    Co-author: Kristen Hagen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  • 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM EST
    (SYM 57) International Dissemination of B4DT: Outcomes, Clinical Training Opportunities, and Future Directions

    Speaker: Throstur Bjorgvinsson, ABPP, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Bjarne Hansen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Bergen

    Co-author: Kristen Hagen, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – Norwegian University of Science and Technology