Severity Benchmarks and Contemporary Clinical Norms for the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R)

Abstract Introduction The obsessive-compulsive inventory revised (OCI-R) is commonly used for the assessment of obsessive-compulsive symptom-severity, yet no severity benchmarks have been developed, limiting utilization in clinical practice, clinical research, and analogue studies. Additionally, since its development, no large normative work has been published. We developed empirically derived cutoff scores, examined psychometric properties, and report contemporary norms for the OCI-R. Methods Data from 1339 participants with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were subjected to confirmatory factors analyses, internal consistency analyses, and ROC (sensitivity/specificity) analyses. We used the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) to determine empirically derived OCI-R severity benchmarks. Results A six-factor solution, and good to excellent internal consistency across factors were found. OCI-R severity benchmarks were identified with satisfactory sensitivity and specificity, especially for the cutoff between mild and moderate symptoms. Cutoffs at greater levels of severity were less sensitive and specific. Discussion We provide contemporary clinical norms and severity benchmarks for the OCI-R total score with acceptable sensitivity and specificity and discuss limitations regarding their use. Total scores should be interpreted with caution given the structure of the OCI-R and the heterogeneous nature of OCD.