Preliminary assessment of obsessive–compulsive spectrum disorder scales for DSM-5

Abstract

There will be several changes to the diagnosis of obsessive–compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) in DSM-5. Several disorders, including body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), hoarding disorder (HD), trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder) (TTM), and excoriation (skin-picking) disorder (SPD), will be included alongside obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in a distinct diagnostic category of OCRDs. Also, dimensional assessments of psychopathology will be included to supplement traditional categorical diagnoses. The DSM-5 subworkgroup on obsessive–compulsive spectrum disorders developed a set of brief self-rated scales for BDD, HD, TTM, and SPD that are consistent in content and structure, reflect DSM-5 criteria, and can be used by clinicians to help generate a dimensional severity rating for the disorders. In the present paper, we discuss the scales’ creation and examine their psychometric properties in a large non-clinical sample (n=296). The scales each demonstrated a single factor structure, strong internal consistency (α=.80–.89), convergent validity (rs=.74–.92), and significantly higher total scores in individuals who indicated the presence of the respective disorder’s core symptom on a binary diagnostic screener (Cohen’s d=0.57–2.18). The results provide support for further evaluation of these scales in clinical samples and take an important step toward the integration of standardized dimensional measurement into DSM-5.