Psychotherapy can help some people avoid disruptive behaviors inked to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A new study suggests that brain scans can spot patients for whom the therapy will be most effective.

The treatment, called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), works by exposing patients in to anxiety-causing stimuli so that they gradually learn to deal with these situations.

“Cognitive behavioral therapy is in many cases very effective, at least in the short term,” said Dr. Jamie Feusner, an associate professor of psychiatry at University of California, Los Angeles.

In the UCLA study, brain scans were used to study 17 people with OCD. The scans — which measure brain activity — were performed before and after the patients completed intensive CBT.

According to Feusner, people with more efficient brain network “connectivity,” as gauged by the brain scans, actually had worse long-term outcomes following CBT treatment.

“We are starting to translate knowledge of the brain into information that could be used by doctors and patients to make clinical decisions,” Feusner said.