Y-BOCS-II: Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, second edition

What Y-BOCS-II is

The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, second edition (Y-BOCS-II), is a clinician-administered measure of obsessive-compulsive symptom severity. It is clinician rated. It is not a self-report screen, and its score does not diagnose obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The primary development study describes revisions to the symptom checklist, severity items, and scoring framework. It also describes the larger role of avoidance in the second edition.

How it is administered

A full administration has three connected parts:

1. a revised symptom checklist;
2. a target list for obsessions, compulsions, and avoidance; and
3. ten scored severity ratings.

The checklist and target list help the clinician identify the symptoms covered by the severity interview. They do not add points to the total.

Survey Doctor's follow-up workflow reviews the existing targets and repeats the ten severity ratings. It does not repeat the full checklist. The same identified edition and administration mode should remain attached to each result.

How scoring works

Each severity item scores from 0 to 5. All ten ratings produce a total from 0 to 50.

The first five ratings form the obsessions subtotal. The last five form the compulsions subtotal. Each subtotal ranges from 0 to 25.

All ten are required. Survey Doctor does not prorate an incomplete administration.

How to read a result

A higher score represents greater rated obsessive-compulsive symptom severity. A lower score represents less rated severity. The total should be read with both subtotals, the identified target symptoms, daily function, the clinical interview, and the reason for reassessment.

No band is shown. The reviewed sources did not establish one complete band set for this 0-to-50 score range. A total should not be converted into an invented mild, moderate, or severe label.

The score does not choose treatment or prove that treatment caused a change. It also does not replace direct assessment of distress, function, risk, insight, related conditions, or changes in the symptoms kept in mind.

How it differs from Original Y-BOCS

Original Y-BOCS and Y-BOCS-II are separate editions. Edition matters. The second edition changes parts of the severity interview and gives avoidance a larger role.

Original Y-BOCS uses ten ratings from 0 to 4 and produces a total from 0 to 40. Y-BOCS-II uses ten ratings from 0 to 5 and produces a total from 0 to 50. Their subtotals also have different ranges.

Keep the totals apart. A difference between them may reflect the edition and score range rather than a clinical change. Record the exact edition, date, administration mode, and score source whenever results are compared.

Limits of the measure

Y-BOCS-II depends on clinical interviewing, disclosure, and judgment. A symptom may be missed or understood differently across interviews. A change in target symptoms can also change the context of the ratings.

Use the result as structured information within a broader assessment. That is its role. Do not use it as a diagnosis, a stand-alone safety assessment, or a substitute for the patient's account.