Clinician or parent? Hand your device over with the score hidden, or send the test to their phone.
18 questions · about 3–5 minutes
For each one, pick the answer that fits you best over the past month. There are no right or wrong answers.
Rate how much each experience has distressed or bothered you, not just how often it happens.
Your answers stay on this device. Nothing is saved or sent unless you choose to email the results. This screening tool is for educational and self-awareness purposes only. It does not diagnose OCD, which needs an assessment by a qualified clinician. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
- Questions
- 18
- Time
- 3–5 min
- Looks back over
- The past month
- Score range
- 0–72
- Cost
- Free
What the OCI-R measures
- Washing: contamination fears and cleaning (questions 5, 11 and 17)
- Checking: doors, switches, taps and other things (questions 2, 8 and 14)
- Ordering: needing things arranged a certain way (questions 3, 9 and 15)
- Obsessing: unwanted, upsetting thoughts that are hard to dismiss (questions 6, 12 and 18)
- Hoarding: saving and collecting things (questions 1, 7 and 13)
- Neutralizing: counting, repeating numbers, good and bad numbers (questions 4, 10 and 16)
About the OCI-R
The original Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory was a 42-item questionnaire published by Edna Foa and colleagues in 1998. In 2002 Foa's team cut it to 18 items, three for each of six symptom types, keeping what mattered while making it quick enough to use at every visit. That short form, the OCI-R, is now one of the most widely used OCD questionnaires in clinics and research.
Each statement is rated from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) for how much it has distressed or bothered you in the past month, for a total from 0 to 72. The authors suggested 21 as the cutoff that best separated people with OCD from people without it; some later studies have proposed lower cutoffs. Each three-question subscale runs from 0 to 12, and the pattern across them often says more than the total, because OCD looks very different from one person to the next.
OCD often goes years without being recognized, partly because people keep their obsessions private out of embarrassment. Some forms, such as religious or moral obsessions (sometimes called scrupulosity), are not asked about directly here. If that is what you live with, tell a clinician even if your score is low.
How the OCI-R is scored
- Every question is answered on the same scale, from "Not at all" (0 points) to "Extremely" (4 points).
- The answers are added together for a total from 0 to 72.
- For example, answering "A little" to all 18 questions gives 1 × 18 = 18, which falls in the Below the OCD cutoff range.
OCI-R score ranges
The ranges this quiz uses to label a score. They describe where a score falls, not a diagnosis.
| Result | Score |
|---|---|
| Below the OCD cutoff | 0–20 |
| At or above the OCD cutoff | 21–72 |
How to read the results
- It is a snapshot, not a diagnosis. The score describes the past month, and a label only says where that falls compared with the people the questionnaire was tested on. A word like "mild" does not mean a mild disorder.
- Look at the answers, not only the total. Which questions scored highest often says more about what to work on than the number does.
- Compare with yourself over time. Taking it again in a few weeks, or after starting therapy, shows whether things are moving. Compare each score with your own earlier one, not with someone else's.
- Talk it through. A clinician will ask what no questionnaire can: how long it has been like this, what else is going on, and how much it gets in the way.
- It does not ask about suicide. The OCI-R has no question about thoughts of death or self-harm, so a clinician should ask directly. If you are having those thoughts, call or text 988.
The OCI-R compared with similar tests
| Test | Screens for | Questions | Looks back over | Asks about suicide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHQ-9 | Depression | 9 | The past two weeks | Yes |
| EPDS | Depression in pregnancy and after birth | 10 | The past seven days | Yes |
| CESD-R | Depression, as a community screen | 20 | The past two weeks | Yes |
| HAM-D | Depression, including physical symptoms | 17 | The past week | Yes |
| MADRS | Depression, and how it changes in treatment | 10 | The past week | Yes |
| GAD-7 | Generalized anxiety | 7 | The past two weeks | No |
| OCI-R (this page) | Obsessions and compulsions | 18 | The past month | No |
| DASS-21 | Depression, anxiety and stress, scored separately | 21 | The past week | No |
Using the OCI-R with clients
- Baseline, then repeat. Give it at intake, then at regular intervals, and compare each score with the client's own earlier ones to see whether treatment is working.
- Hand to client. Give it on your own device in session. The questions fill the screen with nothing else on it, and the scores stay hidden until you take the device back and press Show results.
- Send to someone. Send a link before the session by text or email. Tick "Ask for a copy of their results" and their results page offers to email you their score. They decide whether to send it. Your address travels in the link itself and never reaches our servers.
- Copy summary and Print. The results screen copies a one-line summary for the session note, or prints the results on their own.
- Nothing is stored. Answers stay in the browser. Results leave it only when someone chooses to email them, and that email is not kept.
- Billing. Giving and scoring a standardized instrument like the OCI-R is commonly billed as CPT 96127, one unit per instrument. Payers set their own limits, so check before relying on it.
Diagnosis codes often documented for this concern
For reference only. A screening score is not a diagnosis, and none of these follows from a score on its own.
Where to go from here
- Anxiety Therapy at Crown Counseling · in Brooklyn and online across New York
- Free resources for therapists
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the OCI-R?+
The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, Revised is an 18-question self-report measure of OCD symptoms, published by Edna Foa and colleagues in 2002. It gives a total score and six subscale scores, for washing, checking, ordering, obsessing, hoarding and neutralizing.
What OCI-R score suggests OCD?+
The authors suggested a total of 21 or more as the cutoff for likely OCD. Some later studies have used lower cutoffs, so a score in the high teens with a lot of distress is still worth an assessment.
What do the six subscales mean?+
Each subscale is three questions about one kind of symptom: washing, checking, ordering, obsessing (unwanted thoughts), hoarding and neutralizing (counting or repeating to cancel out a thought). A high score on one subscale can matter even when the total is low, because most people with OCD have one or two main themes rather than all six.
Can the OCI-R tell me if I have OCD?+
No. It is a screen. An OCD diagnosis comes from an assessment with a clinician, often using an interview such as the Y-BOCS, which also measures how much time the symptoms take and how much they interfere with life.
Are my responses stored?+
No. All responses remain completely private and local to your browser. No data is collected, stored, or transmitted to any server.
References
- Foa EB, Huppert JD, Leiberg S, et al. The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory: development and validation of a short version. Psychol Assess. 2002;14(4):485-496.
- Foa EB, Kozak MJ, Salkovskis PM, Coles ME, Amir N. The validation of a new obsessive-compulsive disorder scale: the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory. Psychol Assess. 1998;10(3):206-214.
- Abramowitz JS, Deacon BJ. Psychometric properties and construct validity of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised: replication and extension with a clinical sample. J Anxiety Disord. 2006;20(8):1016-1035.