Usage conditions apply.OCI-12 (Abramovitch, Abramowitz & McKay, 2021), items from the OCI-R (Foa et al., 2002). Hosted with the written permission of the rights holder; free of charge and never behind a paywall. Please do not resell or paywall this content.
Over the past month, how often have you been bothered by…
Not at all0
A little1
Moderately2
A lot3
Extremely4
Score
01I check things more often than necessary.
-
02I get upset if objects are not arranged properly.
-
03I find it difficult to touch an object when I know it has been touched by strangers or certain people.
-
04I find it difficult to control my own thoughts.
-
05I repeatedly check doors, windows, drawers, and so on.
-
06I get upset if others change the way I have arranged things.
-
07I sometimes have to wash or clean myself simply because I feel contaminated.
-
08I am upset by unpleasant thoughts that come into my mind against my will.
-
09I repeatedly check gas and water taps and light switches after turning them off.
-
10I need things to be arranged in a particular order.
-
11I wash my hands more often and longer than necessary.
-
12I frequently get nasty thoughts and have difficulty getting rid of them.
-
0-4score item↑↓moveScored locally - nothing leaves this page
0 of 12
0 / 48
OCI-120 / 12
Over the past month, how often have you been bothered by…
Scored locally - nothing leaves this page
01I check things more often than necessary.
02I get upset if objects are not arranged properly.
03I find it difficult to touch an object when I know it has been touched by strangers or certain people.
04I find it difficult to control my own thoughts.
05I repeatedly check doors, windows, drawers, and so on.
06I get upset if others change the way I have arranged things.
07I sometimes have to wash or clean myself simply because I feel contaminated.
08I am upset by unpleasant thoughts that come into my mind against my will.
09I repeatedly check gas and water taps and light switches after turning them off.
10I need things to be arranged in a particular order.
11I wash my hands more often and longer than necessary.
12I frequently get nasty thoughts and have difficulty getting rid of them.
The OCI-12 is a self-report measure of obsessive-compulsive symptom severity across the four dimensions that define the modern conception of OCD: checking, ordering, washing and obsessing. Each dimension gets three items rated for how much distress it caused in the past month. It is a shortened, syndromally cleaner revision of the 18-item OCI-R, removing the hoarding items (hoarding is a separate DSM-5 diagnosis) and the neutralising items (which loaded poorly and blurred with obsessing).
The result is a total score that tracks OCD as currently defined, rather than OCD plus its former neighbours. It suits screening and progress monitoring; it is not a diagnostic instrument.
Where it comes from.
Amitai Abramovitch, Jonathan Abramowitz and Dean McKay published the OCI-12 in 2021, derived from Foa and colleagues' OCI-R (2002), itself a shortening of the original 42-item OCI (1998). The motivation was DSM-5: hoarding disorder left the OCD chapter in 2013, yet the OCI-R kept scoring it, inflating totals for a symptom no longer part of the syndrome.
The validation drew on 1,040 OCD patients, 423 patients with anxiety-related disorders and 1,194 non-clinical controls across Rogers Behavioral Health, UNC and the Mayo Clinic. The OCI-12 matched or slightly beat the parent OCI-R on diagnostic accuracy (AUC 0.91 vs 0.88 against controls) while dropping a third of its items.
How scoring works.
Each of the 12 items is rated 0 ('Not at all') to 4 ('Extremely') for distress over the past month, giving a total of 0-48 across four 3-item subscales: checking, ordering, washing and obsessing. In the 2021 validation, a total score of 11 or above best separated OCD patients from non-clinical controls (sensitivity ~83%, specificity ~81%); distinguishing OCD from other anxiety-related disorders required a higher cutoff of 14 (sensitivity ~72%, specificity ~73%). Severity benchmarks: 0-12 mild, 13-21 moderate, 22-48 severe. The authors are explicit that the cutoff must not be used on its own to diagnose OCD.
Score
Severity
Interpretation
0–12
Mild
Within the mild severity range (0-12). Totals of 11-12 sit at or above the cutoff that best separated OCD from non-clinical controls, so consider a clinical interview if symptoms are distressing.
13–21
Moderate
Moderate obsessive-compulsive symptom severity. Above the cutoff of 14 that distinguished OCD from other anxiety disorders; further assessment is recommended.
22–48
Severe
Severe obsessive-compulsive symptom severity. A full diagnostic assessment and a symptom checklist such as the Y-BOCS are recommended.
How well it performs.
The 2021 validation drew on 1,040 OCD patients, 423 patients with anxiety-related disorders and 1,194 non-clinical controls across Rogers Behavioral Health, UNC and the Mayo Clinic. At the cutoff of 11 or above against non-clinical controls, sensitivity was 83% and specificity 81%; the stricter cutoff of 14 was needed to separate OCD from other anxiety-related disorders (~72% / ~73%). The total score discriminated OCD from non-clinical controls at AUC 0.91, slightly better than the parent OCI-R (AUC 0.88).
Internal consistency (alpha) ranged 0.71-0.89 across samples and subscales. The OCI-12 correlated with its parent OCI-R at r = 0.92-0.97. Twelve-week test-retest ICC was 0.85 (n = 212, students). Treatment sensitivity was comparable to the Y-BOCS: across exposure-based treatment the effect size was d = 1.89, and OCI-12 change correlated at r = 0.42 with Y-BOCS change.
83%
SENSITIVITY (CUTOFF >=11, OCD VS CONTROLS)
81%
SPECIFICITY (CUTOFF >=11, OCD VS CONTROLS)
0.85
TEST-RETEST ICC (12 WK, n=212)
0.91
AUC (OCD VS NON-CLINICAL)
How it compares to the alternatives.
Instrument
Items
Time
When to reach for it
OCI-12
12
~3 min
12-item self-report, 0-48 across four 3-item subscales (checking, ordering, washing, obsessing). Scorable in this library.
Clinician-rated, child/adolescent. The paediatric equivalent of the Y-BOCS.
OCI-4
4
~1 min
4 items, ~1 min. Ultra-brief progress-monitoring offshoot; same item-copyright position.
Right tool, wrong tool.
The OCI-12 is a severity and progress-monitoring instrument for confirmed OCD, not a diagnostic one. Its items are drawn from the copyrighted OCI-R, and permission to reproduce them has not been verified, so it cannot be self-scored here. Use the Y-BOCS in this library for a scorable OCD severity measure, and the DOCS page for a further alternative.
Reach for it when
-Brief repeated progress monitoring in confirmed OCD where a licence or permission to reproduce items is in place.
-Research on the four core symptom dimensions (checking, ordering, washing, obsessing).
-When hoarding contamination of totals must be avoided, because the OCI-12 excludes it by design.
Reach for something else when
-Diagnosis: a clinical interview is required; the OCI-12 screens and monitors severity.
-Clinician-rated severity for treatment trials: use the Y-BOCS.
-Hoarding assessment: the OCI-12 deliberately measures none.
-Any setting without verified permission to reproduce the items - use the Y-BOCS here instead.
Reading the score with care.
Twelve-week test-retest ICC was 0.85 in students; the moderate underlying stability (r = 0.74) means single-point changes are noise. As a rough guide, the difference between the mild and moderate band midpoints (~8 points) reflects a clearly meaningful shift; no formal MCID has been published yet.
What it cannot tell you.
No published MCID. The cutoff of 11 overlaps the 'mild' severity band (0-12), which can confuse interpretation. The ordering subscale discriminates poorly (AUC 0.60). Norms are US clinic and student samples. Self-report with no insight assessment. Item copyright unverified, so it cannot be self-scored here.
How licensing works.
OCI-12 (Abramovitch, Abramowitz & McKay, 2021), items from the OCI-R (Foa et al., 2002). Hosted with the written permission of the rights holder; free of charge and never behind a paywall. Please do not resell or paywall this content.
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