Symptom Dimension Breakpoints for the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Child Version (OCI-CV)

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) presents with distinct symptom dimensions: contamination/cleaning, symmetry/ordering, and disturbing thoughts/checking.
• The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Child Version (OCI-CV) is a self-report tool assessing six OCD dimensions, but its ability to identify clinically significant symptoms within major OCD dimensions is unverified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the OCI-CV's accuracy in identifying clinically significant symptoms across the three major pediatric OCD dimensions.
• To establish validated breakpoints for the OCI-CV scales corresponding to clinically significant symptom severity.

Main Methods:

• Data from 197 Swedish and Spanish youth diagnosed with OCD were analyzed.
• Participants completed the OCI-CV, and clinically significant symptom severity was assessed using a validated interview-based measure for each major OCD dimension.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to determine the accuracy of OCI-CV scale scores.

Main Results:

• A washing scale score ≥ 3 on the OCI-CV accurately identified clinically significant contamination/cleaning symptoms (AUC = 0.85, 79% accuracy).
• An obsessing scale score ≥ 4 adequately identified disturbing thoughts/checking symptoms (AUC = 0.71, 67% accuracy).
• An ordering scale score ≥ 3 adequately identified symmetry/ordering symptoms (AUC = 0.72, 70% accuracy).

Conclusions:

• The OCI-CV is a reliable tool for identifying youth with clinically significant contamination/cleaning symptoms in pediatric OCD.
• The OCI-CV demonstrates adequate precision in identifying clinically significant disturbing thoughts/checking and symmetry/ordering symptoms.
• The established OCI-CV breakpoints can inform differential diagnosis and treatment outcome research for pediatric OCD subtypes.