The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was developed by Goodman, W.K., Price, L.H., Rassmussen, S.A., et al. (1989) and it’s one of the most well-established scales to assess the severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Recent research has shown that obsessions and compulsions occur quite commonly among normal people. While completing the inventory below, please keep in mind the following definitions of obsessions and compulsions.

OBSESSIONS are unwelcomed and distressing ideas, thoughts, or impulses that repeatedly enter your mind. They may seem to occur against your will. They may be repugnant to you, you may recognize them as senseless, and they may not fit your personality.

Examples of an obsession are recurrent thought or impulses to do harm to a child even though you never would and the idea that household cleansers may lead to contamination and serious illness.

Obsessions differ from worries in that worries are about possible negative things related to life problems that you are afraid might happen. For example, you may worry about failing an exam, about finances, health, or personal relationships. In contrast to obsessions, your worries don’t usually seem totally senseless, repugnant, or inconsistent with your personality.

COMPULSIONS, on the other hand, are behaviors or acts that you feel driven to perform although you may recognize them as senseless or excessive. Usually, compulsions are performed in response to an obsession, or according to certain rules or in a stereotyped fashion. At times, you may try to resist doing them but this may prove difficult. You may experience discomfort that does not diminish until the behavior is completed.

Examples of compulsions are the need to repeatedly check appliances, water faucets, and the lock on the front door before you can leave the house and repeated handwashing. While most compulsions are observable behaviors, some are unobservable mental acts, such as silent checking or having to recite nonsense phrases to yourself each time you have a bad thought.