Independent validation of the dimensional Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale (DY-BOCS).

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a clinically heterogeneous condition characterized by a few consistent, temporally stable symptom dimensions. The dimensional Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale (DY-BOCS) is a recently developed instrument that allows patient and clinician ratings of dimension-specific symptom severity, as well as estimates of global symptom severity in patients with OCD.

Methods: We examined the psychometric properties of the DY-BOCS in a sample of 128 European adult patients with OCD.

Results: The results of the psychometric analyses were overall excellent. The internal consistency across the domains of time, distress and interference for each dimension was high. The subscales of the DY-BOCS were largely independent from one another. The convergent and discriminant validity of the DY-BOCS subscales were adequate. The Global Severity and Interference scales were largely intercorrelated, suggesting that they may be redundant. The level of agreement between self-report and expert ratings was adequate although somewhat lower than in the original validation study.

Conclusions: The results of the present study confirm the excellent psychometric properties of the DY-BOCS reported in the original validation study.