Y-BOCS OCD Severity Calculator
What is the Y-BOCS OCD Severity Calculator?
The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) is one of the most widely used tools for rating the severity of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This calculator helps you total a self-rated version of the 10 core symptom-severity items and see how your score falls into commonly used severity ranges.
The original Y-BOCS was designed to be administered by a trained clinician. A professional interview allows clarification of symptoms, time spent, and impact on daily life. This online tool is only an educational aid for estimating severity and preparing for conversations with a mental health professional. It does not provide a diagnosis and cannot replace a clinical assessment.
How the Y-BOCS score is calculated
The Y-BOCS separates OCD symptoms into two domains:
- Obsessions – intrusive, unwanted thoughts, images, or urges.
- Compulsions – repetitive behaviors or mental rituals performed to reduce distress or prevent a feared event.
Each domain has five questions that look at:
- Time spent on obsessions or compulsions
- Interference with daily life
- Distress or anxiety caused
- Effort made to resist
- Sense of control over them
Every item is scored from 0 to 4, where higher numbers indicate more severe symptoms in that area. The total Y-BOCS score is the sum of all 10 items.
The scoring formula can be written as:
where Q1–Q5 are the five obsession items and Q6–Q10 are the five compulsion items. The possible range is from 0 to 40.
Many clinicians also look at subscale scores:
- Obsessions subscale = Q1 + Q2 + Q3 + Q4 + Q5 (range 0–20)
- Compulsions subscale = Q6 + Q7 + Q8 + Q9 + Q10 (range 0–20)
Typical Y-BOCS severity ranges
Different studies and clinics may use slightly different cutoffs, but a commonly cited set of Y-BOCS total score ranges is:
| Y-BOCS total score | Typical severity label | General description |
|---|---|---|
| 0–7 | Subclinical or minimal | OCD symptoms, if present, are usually mild and cause little interference. |
| 8–15 | Mild | Clear OCD symptoms with some distress or interference, but often manageable. |
| 16–23 | Moderate | Symptoms are more persistent and interfere with daily life and functioning. |
| 24–31 | Severe | OCD occupies a large share of time, causes significant distress, and disrupts routines, work, or relationships. |
| 32–40 | Extreme | Symptoms are nearly constant or disabling, with very high distress and loss of control. |
These ranges are guidelines only. A trained clinician may interpret the same score differently depending on your overall history, the types of obsessions and compulsions you experience, and other mental or physical health conditions.
How to answer the questions
When using this calculator, base your answers on your average experience over the past week. Keep these points in mind:
- Respond as honestly as you can, without downplaying or exaggerating.
- For time-based items, focus on how many waking hours you actually spent on obsessions or compulsions on a typical day in the last week.
- For interference and distress, think about how much your symptoms affected work, school, home life, relationships, or leisure activities.
- For resistance and control, rate your usual level of effort and sense of control, not isolated best or worst moments.
If your symptoms fluctuate a lot, you can think about the week as a whole and choose the option that best fits your overall experience.
Interpreting your results
After you complete all 10 items, the calculator will show:
- Your total Y-BOCS score (0–40)
- Your obsessions and compulsions subscale scores (0–20 each), if available in the output
- The severity range your total falls into, based on the table above
Some general ways to think about the score include:
- Lower scores (0–7) suggest that OCD symptoms are absent or cause little current impairment. However, if you feel very distressed despite a low score, it is still reasonable to seek help.
- Mild to moderate scores (8–23) usually indicate meaningful symptoms that may benefit from professional assessment, psychoeducation, and possibly therapy.
- Severe to extreme scores (24–40) often correspond to substantial or disabling OCD that typically warrants prompt, structured treatment.
Clinicians sometimes also look at percentage change over time. For example, in research settings a reduction of around 25% or more in the Y-BOCS score is often considered a clinically meaningful treatment response. For personal use, tracking your scores over weeks or months can help you and your clinician see trends, but day-to-day changes are less informative.
Worked example
To see how the calculator works, imagine someone completes the scale with these answers:
- Time spent on obsessions: score 2
- Interference from obsessions: score 3
- Distress from obsessions: score 3
- Resistance to obsessions: score 1
- Control over obsessions: score 2
- Time spent on compulsions: score 2
- Interference from compulsions: score 2
- Distress from compulsions: score 2
- Resistance to compulsions: score 1
- Control over compulsions: score 2
The calculator would then compute:
- Obsessions subscale = 2 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 2 = 11
- Compulsions subscale = 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 9
- Total Y-BOCS score = 11 + 9 = 20
A total score of 20 falls into the moderate range in the table above. This would generally suggest that OCD symptoms are clearly present, occur regularly, and noticeably affect daily functioning. It would be appropriate for this person to discuss their symptoms and score with a mental health professional, who can confirm the diagnosis (if present) and suggest evidence-based treatment options such as exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and/or medication.
When to seek professional help
Regardless of your score, consider talking with a clinician if:
- Your thoughts or rituals are taking up significant time or energy.
- You avoid people, places, or activities because of obsessions or compulsions.
- You feel ashamed, frightened, or overwhelmed by your symptoms.
- You have thoughts of harming yourself or others, even if you do not plan to act on them.
If you are in crisis, feeling unsafe, or worried you might act on harmful thoughts, contact emergency services or a crisis hotline in your area immediately. Online tools are not designed for urgent or emergency situations.
Limitations, assumptions, and important disclaimers
This Y-BOCS OCD Severity Calculator has several important limitations:
- Not a diagnostic tool. Only a qualified professional can diagnose OCD or any other mental health condition. A high or low score here does not confirm or rule out a diagnosis.
- Self-report bias. Because you rate yourself, answers may be influenced by mood, memory, or how you interpret each question. A clinician-administered Y-BOCS interview can clarify these areas.
- Focus on severity, not type. The tool measures how intense and disruptive your symptoms are, but does not categorize the specific kind of obsessions or compulsions you have (for example, checking, contamination, symmetry, or purely mental rituals).
- Based on a one-week snapshot. OCD symptoms often fluctuate. Your score reflects only the period you are rating and may change at other times.
- No treatment decisions on score alone. Never start, stop, or change medication or therapy based solely on this calculator. Always consult with your prescriber or therapist first.
By using this tool, you agree that it is provided for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional diagnosis, treatment, or emergency care.
Sources and further reading
The Y-BOCS was originally developed by Goodman and colleagues as a clinician-rated scale to assess OCD severity. For detailed information about its development and validation, consult peer-reviewed articles or clinical guidelines on OCD assessment and treatment.
If you would like to explore other mental health rating scales or learn more about OCD and anxiety disorders, consider discussing options with your healthcare provider or looking for reputable educational resources from national psychiatric or psychological associations.