Piloting the perinatal obsessive-compulsive scale (POCS): development and validation

Area of Science:

• Perinatal mental health
• Psychiatry
• Clinical psychology

Background:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) frequently emerges or worsens during the perinatal period.
• Existing assessment tools do not specifically address the unique aspects of perinatal OCD.
• There is a clinical need for a specialized instrument to evaluate perinatal OCD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a self-report scale for assessing perinatal obsessions and compulsions.
• To create the Perinatal Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (POCS).
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the POCS.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study involving 162 women (67 pregnant, 95 postpartum).
• Participants completed the newly developed Perinatal Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (POCS).
• Concurrent administration of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) for validation.

Main Results:

• The POCS demonstrated good construct validity, high internal consistency, and strong concurrent validity.
• The scale showed good discriminative capacity in identifying perinatal OCD.
• Common obsessions included fears about infant health, contamination, separation, and infant death, with related compulsions.

Conclusions:

• The Perinatal Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (POCS) is a valid and reliable tool for detecting perinatal OCD.
• The POCS facilitates the identification of perinatal OCD in clinical settings.
• The scale provides a platform for women to discuss sensitive perinatal OCD-related issues.