How long does the Y-BOCS take to complete?

The papers reviewed for this article do not give a set time. A 1996 study described the self-report version as a time-saving substitute for the interview, so the interview takes longer. Ask your clinician how long to allow.

Can I take the Y-BOCS online by myself?

A self-report version exists, and a 1996 study found that it agreed well with the clinician interview. A self-scored form still does not diagnose OCD. Use the result to start a conversation with a mental health professional.

Is a Y-BOCS score of 16 high?

It depends on the bands. On the traditional bands, 16 is the start of the moderate range, and most clinical trials used 16 as their entry threshold. A 2022 analysis of 5,140 people put 14 to 21 in the mild range and suggested that the trial threshold move to 14.

What Y-BOCS score counts as remission?

The international expert consensus defines remission as a score of 12 or lower, together with a low rating on a global severity scale. A 2024 meta-analysis of 25 trials found an optimal cutoff of 15 or lower, and its authors still recommended the consensus definition. Individual trials sometimes use other cutoffs.

Is the Y-BOCS-II scored the same as the original?

No. The Y-BOCS-II rates each of its 10 items from 0 to 5, so the total runs from 0 to 50 and not 0 to 40. A 2025 study set separate bands for it: 0 to 14 non-clinical or subclinical, 15 to 21 mild, 22 to 34 moderate, and 35 to 50 severe.

What Is the Y-BOCS Test for OCD?

The short answer: The Y-BOCS (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale) is a 10-item rating scale that measures how severe OCD symptoms are. A trained clinician rates each item from 0 to 4, so the total runs from 0 to 40. It does not diagnose OCD. Clinicians and researchers use it to set a baseline and to track change during treatment.

What is the Y-BOCS?

Wayne Goodman and colleagues at Yale and Brown published the scale in 1989 in two papers. The first paper says the scale was designed to give a specific measure of OCD symptom severity "that is not influenced by the type of obsessions or compulsions present."

The second paper tested validity. It found that the scale was sensitive to change in a placebo-controlled trial of fluvoxamine in 42 patients. The authors concluded that it was suitable as an outcome measure in drug trials. A 2010 paper by some of the original authors calls the Y-BOCS "the gold standard measure" of OCD symptom severity.

The instrument has two parts. A Symptom Checklist records which obsessions and compulsions a person has. The Severity Scale produces the score.

Who gives the Y-BOCS, and is there a self-report version?

The original scale is clinician-rated. A trained interviewer asks the questions and chooses each rating. The 1989 reliability study used four raters and 40 patients, and agreement between raters was excellent for the total score and for each item.

A self-report version also exists. A 1996 study compared it with the interview in people with and without OCD. The self-report form showed strong agreement with the interview. The authors wrote that the self-report form "may be a time-saving and less costly substitute," and that it needed more study in clinical samples.

A form you fill in online is a self-report. It can help you describe your symptoms to a clinician. It is not the same as a scored interview.

How is the Y-BOCS scored?

The Severity Scale has 10 items. Each item is rated from 0 (no symptoms) to 4 (extreme symptoms), which gives a total of 0 to 40. The scale also gives separate subtotals for obsessions and for compulsions.

A 2015 study of 954 adults lists what the items rate. Each one is rated for obsessions and again for compulsions:

Time: how much time the symptoms take.
Interference: how much they get in the way of daily life.
Distress: how much distress they cause.
Resistance: how much the person tries to resist them.
Control: how much control the person has over them.

What do Y-BOCS scores mean?

There is more than one set of severity bands, and they do not agree. Ask which set your clinician uses.

The traditional bands. A 2025 benchmarking paper states that for many years the Y-BOCS was interpreted with these ranges:

0 to 7: subclinical
8 to 15: mild
16 to 23: moderate
24 to 31: severe
32 to 40: extreme

These bands did not come from data. The 2015 study says that Y-BOCS thresholds used in practice "are not empirically based." The 2025 paper calls the score of 16, used as the entry threshold in most clinical trials, "non-empirically derived."

Data-based bands. Two research groups compared Y-BOCS totals with a clinician's overall severity rating (the Clinical Global Impressions-Severity scale).

The 2015 study of 954 adults in Brazil matched scores of 0 to 13 with mild symptoms, 14 to 25 with moderate, 26 to 34 with moderate-severe, and 35 to 40 with severe.
The 2025 paper describes a 2022 analysis of 5,140 people aged 5 to 82 from five countries. It supported 0 to 13 as subclinical, 14 to 21 as mild, 22 to 29 as moderate, and 30 to 40 as severe. It also suggested that the trial entry threshold move from 16 to 14.

A score of 20 is "moderate" on the traditional bands and on the 2015 bands, and "mild" on the 2022 bands. The number alone does not settle the label.

What counts as response and remission on the Y-BOCS?

Trials use the Y-BOCS to define who improved. The definitions vary between studies.

Expert consensus. A 2024 meta-analysis summarizes the international expert consensus. Response is a Y-BOCS reduction of at least 35% with a Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement rating of 2 or lower. Remission is a Y-BOCS score of 12 or lower with a Clinical Global Impressions-Severity rating of 2 or lower.
An earlier data-based study. A 2013 analysis of four trials (288 participants) found that a reduction of 35% or more best predicted response. A score of 14 or lower best predicted symptom remission. A score of 12 or lower best predicted "wellness," which also included good quality of life and functioning.
The newest data. The 2024 meta-analysis pooled 1,235 participants from 25 trials. Its optimal thresholds were a 30% reduction for response and a score of 15 or lower for remission. The authors still recommended the consensus definitions, because recent trials enrolled more treatment-resistant patients.

Individual trials can set their own rules. The deep TMS trial we cover in does TMS work for OCD used a 30% reduction for response and a score below 10 for remission. Check the definition before you compare response rates between treatments.

What are the Y-BOCS-II and the CY-BOCS?

Y-BOCS-II. The second edition was published in 2010. It revised the item content and the scoring, built avoidance into the severity ratings, and changed the Symptom Checklist. Per the 2025 benchmarking paper, each of the 10 items is rated from 0 to 5, so the total runs from 0 to 50. An "obsession-free interval" item replaced the item on resistance to obsessions. The higher ceiling helps separate severe OCD from the most debilitating cases.

The scores of the two editions are not interchangeable. The 2025 paper used 2,982 children and adults in 13 countries to set Y-BOCS-II bands: 0 to 14 non-clinical or subclinical, 15 to 21 mild, 22 to 34 moderate, and 35 to 50 severe.

CY-BOCS. The Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale is the version for young people. The 1997 validation study describes it as a semistructured, 10-item measure and tested it in 65 children aged 8 to 17. It found good to excellent agreement between raters.

For trials in children, a 2022 meta-analysis of 21 trials (1,234 participants) found that the optimal cutoffs were a reduction of 35% or more for response and a raw score of 12 or lower for remission. Our page on OCD in children covers symptoms and treatment at that age.

Can the Y-BOCS diagnose OCD?

No. The scale rates severity. It assumes that a clinician has already made the diagnosis. A 2014 study of the children's version says this directly: the scale can be used to determine severity "after a diagnosis of OCD is determined," and its severity categories "should not be used in the screening of OCD symptoms."

Diagnosis takes a clinical evaluation. NIMH says the first step is a health care provider who examines you, asks about your health history, and checks that another condition is not the cause. That provider may refer you to a mental health professional. NIMH notes that worry, anxiety, and low mood occur in other mental illnesses too, which makes diagnosis difficult. Our sibling site anxiety.md covers anxiety disorders.

The scale has other limits:

The bands are not settled. The same score can get a different label, as shown above.
The original has a ceiling. It does not separate severe cases from the most debilitating ones well. This is one reason for the second edition.
One item is weak. The 2025 paper states that the resistance to obsessions item had the weakest performance of all items.

The bottom line

The Y-BOCS is the standard measure of how severe OCD is. It has 10 items and a total from 0 to 40, and a trained clinician gives it as an interview. Its severity bands differ between sources, so the score means the most when you compare it with your own earlier score. In trials, a drop of about 30% to 35% counts as a response. The scale does not diagnose OCD. If an online version gives you a high score, take it to a mental health professional.

Last updated: October 2026. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. A Y-BOCS score is not a diagnosis. Talk with a psychiatrist, psychologist, or OCD specialist about your symptoms and your treatment options.