Recognizing obsessive-compulsive disorder: how suitable is the German Zohar-Fineberg obsessive-compulsive screen?

BMC Psychiatry

Tatjana Paunov¹  Florian Weck¹  Franziska Kühne¹ 

[1] Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany;

关键词: Assessment;    Obsessive-compulsive disorder;    Psychodiagnostics;    Psychometric properties;    Questionnaire;    Screening;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-021-03458-x

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDespite the prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), its precise identification remains challenging. With the Zohar-Fineberg Obsessive-Compulsive Screen (ZF-OCS; 5 or 6 items), a brief instrument is widely available mainly in English. As there is a lack of empirical studies on the ZF-OCS, the aim of the present study was to translate the items into German and investigate the instrument in a nonclinical sample.MethodsIn two consecutive online surveys, n = 304 and n = 51 students participated. Besides the ZF-OCS, they answered established measures on OCD, depression, health anxiety, general anxiety and health-related well-being.ResultsWhereas internal consistency was low (α = .53–.72; ω = .55–.69), retest reliability (rt1,t2 = .89) at two weeks was high. As expected, we found high correlations with other OCD instruments (r > .61; convergent validity), and significantly weaker correlations with measures of depression (r = .39), health anxiety (r = .29), and health-related well-being (r = −.28, divergent validity). Nonetheless, the correlations with general anxiety were somewhere in between (r = .52).ConclusionsDue to heterogeneous OCD subtypes, the ZF-OCS asks diverse questions which probably resulted in the present internal consistency. Nevertheless, the results on retest reliability and validity were promising. As for other OCD instruments, divergent validity regarding general anxiety seems problematic to establish. Even so, the ZF-OCS seems valuable for screening purposes, as it is short and easy to administer, and may facilitate initiating subsequent clinical assessment. Further studies should determine the instrument’s diagnostic accuracy.

【 授权许可】

CC BY