We used 8 items from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), an empirically derived instrument free of clinician bias, to investigate the usefulness of a previously reported CBCL-based obsessive compulsive scale (OCS) by Nelson et al [Nelson EC, Hanna GL, Hudziak JJ, Botteron KN, Heath AC, Todd RD. Obsessive-compulsive scale of the Child Behavior Checklist: Specificity, sensitivity, and predictive power. Pediatrics 2001;108(1):E14] in a separate cohort of youth with OCD. We computed the psychometric properties of the OCS in our sample of youth with OCD and in psychiatric and normal controls, and compared these to the published values.
Using the recommended cutoff between the 60th and 70th percentiles of the OCS to best predict the presence of OCD, we found very high sensitivity (92 % -78 % ), specificity (86 % -94 % ), negative predictive value (96 % -90 % ), and positive predictive value (77 % -86 % ).
The OC scale of the CBCL shows good reliability and validity and acceptable psychometric properties to help discriminate youth with OCD.