Fish’s Clinical Psychopathology

Fish’s Clinical Psychopathology
signs and symptoms in psychiatry
Third Edition
Authors:Patricia Casey & Brendan Kelly

General Health Questionnaire

The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is a widely used questionnaire to assess general well-being and distress. Several versions of different length are available. In epidemiological studies a 12-items version is mostly used.
In clinical studies, the 28-items "scaled" version (it has four subscales: somatisation, social dysfunction, anxiety, depression) or the 30-items versions are most frequently used. GHQ that was developed by the psychiatrist Sir David Goldberg in Manchester, UK (later London, UK) has been translated to all major languages.
It is sometimes used in health settings as a screening test and as an aid in diagnosis.

Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire - 44

The Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire-44 (OBQ-44) was developed by the Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group to measure beliefs considered important in the development and maintenance of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). In this study an exploratory factor analysis of the questionnaire was conducted with a student population (n = 238). Results indicated four factors: (1) perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty, (2) importance and control of thoughts, (3) responsibility, and (4) overestimation of threat. All four factors were positively associated with obsessive–compulsive symptoms and worry. A series of regression analyses was run to test the relative contributions of cognitive and metacognitive factors. In doing so, we controlled for worry and general threat. The metacognitive dimension of importance and control of thoughts emerged as a consistent unique predictor of overall obsessive–compulsive symptoms. Exploratory analyses of predictors of obsessive–compulsive symptom subtypes showed that metacognition and perfectionism contributed to different symptom domains. The data suggests that particular beliefs may be important in OCD.

Child Behavior Check List

The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a widely-used method of identifying problem behavior in children. It is a component in the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment developed by Thomas M. Achenbach.