Validation of the University of São Paulo's Sensory Phenomena Scale -- English version

Abstract

Introduction: Sensory phenomena (SP) are disturbing sensations, feelings or urges. Although such feelings are often found in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's Syndrome (TS) patients, sensory phenomena are usually not addressed in assessment measures. The University of São Paulo's Sensory Phenomena Scale (USP-SPS) was designed to measure sensory phenomena among all ages of patients with OCD and TS, and it was validated in Portuguese.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to validate the English version of the USP-SPS and to examine its psychometric properties.

Material and methods: Sixty subjects, between the ages of 7 and 60 years, completed the USP-SPS, Y-BOCS or CY-BOCS and YGTSS. An expert clinician also performed a Clinical Inquiry about SP. Inter-rater reliability, sensitivity, specificity, convergent and divergent validity were evaluated.

Results: The USP-SPS symptom checklist showed good sensitivity in all ages, however its severity scale did not show good validity results for the pediatric population.