Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms (Y-BOCS)

What the Y-BOCS measures

The brilliance of the Y-BOCS is that it doesn't care what your obsession is. Whether a patient is obsessed with contamination (germs), harm (worrying they hit someone with their car), or religious scrupulosity (fear of sin), the underlying neurological loop is identical. The Y-BOCS measures the severity of this loop by evaluating the time it consumes, the distress it causes, and the patient's ability to resist it.

The dimensions it assesses

• Obsessions Subscale (Items 1-5): Time spent, Interference, Distress, Resistance, and Control over obsessive thoughts.
• Compulsions Subscale (Items 6-10): Time spent, Interference, Distress, Resistance, and Control over compulsive behaviors.

What to do with your result

1. The ERP Mandate: Standard talk therapy (psychoanalysis) often worsens OCD because analyzing the thoughts gives them more power. The system must explicitly route patients scoring >15 to Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy. ERP forces the patient to trigger the obsession (e.g., touch a dirty doorknob) and absolutely prevents them from performing the compulsion (washing hands) until the brain learns the anxiety will fade on its own.
2. The Reassurance Trap: Family members often enable OCD by providing reassurance (e.g., "Yes, you locked the door, I promise"). The report must warn families that providing reassurance acts as a compulsion, fueling the disease loop.
3. Symptom Shifting: The specific fears of OCD often shift (e.g., from fearing germs to fearing you might hurt someone). The user must be taught that the content of the fear doesn't matter; the neurological mechanisms (Time, Distress, Control) are what must be treated.

Common questions about the Y-BOCS

What does the Y-BOCS measure?

Measurement of the severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), completely independent of the specific type of obsessions or compulsions the patient has.

Can the Y-BOCS diagnose me?

No. Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms (Y-BOCS) is a screening questionnaire, not a diagnostic tool. It can flag that something may need a closer look. It cannot tell you what is causing it. Grief, burnout, a thyroid problem, medication side effects, chronic pain and months of bad sleep are not among its questions, and any of them can move a score. Telling those apart is what a professional assessment is for.

Is this Y-BOCS test really free?

Yes. No account, no email address, no payment. Psychometrics Today is funded by donations rather than advertising, which is also what allows us to publish instruments whose authors permit free but non-commercial use.

Are my answers stored or shared?

No. Your answers are scored inside your browser and never sent to us. There is no database of responses, because we never receive any. Closing the tab erases them, which is why results cannot be recovered afterwards.

How often should I retake the Y-BOCS?

Most of these questionnaires ask about the past one to two weeks, so retaking sooner than that mostly measures the same period twice. Every two to four weeks is a reasonable rhythm if you are tracking change. A direction of travel over several weeks tells a doctor far more than any single score.

How accurate is the Y-BOCS?

Screening questionnaires are good at flagging that something merits attention and poor at establishing what it is. This one is sensitive to how you feel on the day you take it, and many instruments were validated on narrow populations whose cut-offs may not transfer cleanly to everyone. The references at the foot of this page are the primary sources.

Why can I not take the Y-BOCS here?

Copyright is retained and permission is required; it is also a clinician-administered interview, not a self-report. We will not reproduce a questionnaire we have no right to reproduce, so this page explains what it measures instead. The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) is freely available for research use.