Utility of the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 in outpatient anxiety clinics: A comparison between anxiety patients with and without co-occurring depression

Objective: The Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ-45) is a self-report measure of general psychological distress. Although intended to be transdiagnostic, the OQ-45 may be best conceptualized as a measure of depression; as such, its utility in assessing other symptoms such as anxiety is unclear.

Method: We examined scores on the OQ-45 in a sample of 329 patients with anxiety and related disorders, half of whom had co-occurring depression.

Results: Eighty-two percent of patients scored above the OQ-45 cutoff, whereas 18% were incorrectly screened out. Patients with co-occurring depression were more likely to score above the OQ-45 cutoff than nondepressed patients. Depression severity predicted many of the OQ-45 scales, even after controlling for anxiety severity. By contrast, most of the anxiety-specific measures failed to predict the OQ-45 after controlling for depression severity.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that the OQ-45 may not adequately capture anxiety symptoms and are discussed in terms of diagnostic screening and assessment.