title: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. I. Development, use, and reliability.
abstract: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale was designed to remedy the problems of existing rating scales by providing a specific measure of the severity of symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder that is not influenced by the type of obsessions or compulsions present. The scale is a clinician-rated, 10-item scale, each item rated from 0 (no symptoms) to 4 (extreme symptoms) (total range, 0 to 40), with separate subtotals for severity of obsessions and compulsions. In a study involving four raters and 40 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder at various stages of treatment, interrater reliability for the total Yale-Brown Scale score and each of the 10 individual items was excellent, with a high degree of internal consistency among all item scores demonstrated with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Based on pretreatment assessment of 42 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, each item was frequently endorsed and measured across a range of severity. These findings suggest that the Yale-Brown Scale is a reliable instrument for measuring the severity of illness in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder with a range of severity and types of obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 006508.
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mazure
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Fleischmann
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Heninger
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Charney
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index