A further important area of research explores QoL during the course of treatment. Conventionally, treatment success in OCD is defined as a symp¬tom decline of at least 35%31 on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the gold standard for assessing the severity of OCD symp¬toms. Adopting this criterion, many patients clini¬cally considered responders still display disabling symptoms at discharge. While some reviews report success rates up to 80%,32 response rates may fall to as low as 50%33-35 when drop-out rates are taken into account (eg, discharge against clinical advice). To achieve comprehensive treatment success, it is recommended to complement classical behavioral strategies such as response prevention treatment with cognitive approaches, for example associa¬tion splitting.36 For some patients, partial symptom reduction may allow them to re-participate in social life and pick up their former work. For others, how¬ever, a decreased but still marked symptomatic bur-den may bring little relief in everyday life.37