Outcome Questionnaire: Is It Sensitive to Changes in Counseling Center Clients?

Abstract

Sensitivity to change of the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ; M. J. Lambert et al., 1996) items, subscales, and total score was evaluated for clients receiving personal counseling in university counseling center settings. OQ data collected for 248 university students who did not receive treatment and 5,553 students who received treatment from 527 therapists employed in 40 university counseling centers nationwide were included in the analyses. Comparisons between the treated and untreated groups indicated that the OQ total score, all of the subscales, and 34 of the 45 items met 2 preset criteria for change sensitivity, providing support for the OQ as an appropriate index of outcome in counseling center clients. The 11 OQ items that failed to demonstrate change sensitivity were aimed at assessing aspects of interpersonal functioning, related to specific physical symptoms, or were susceptible to floor effects. The possibility of using change sensitivity results in revising the OQ for optimal use in counseling center settings is addressed, and general implications for outcome test development are discussed.

Maximizing Psychotherapy Outcome beyond Evidence-Based Medicine

“…Furthermore, the items that make up the OQ-45 have been shown to be sensitive to changes in multiple patient populations over short periods of time while remaining relatively stable in untreated individuals [21]. Evidence from factor analytic studies suggests it measures an overall psychological distress factor as well as factors consistent with the 3 subscales [22].…”

A comparison of the Outcome Questionnaire‐45 and Outcome Questionnaire‐30 in classification and prediction of treatment outcome

“…Concurrent validity is moderate to high (r values of 0.50-0.85) when correlated with measures most often used to assess psychotherapy outcome in clinical trials (Lambert et al, 2004a). Most importantly, the OQ-45 has been shown to be sensitive to change in clients over short time periods, while remaining stable in untreated individuals (Vermeersch, Lambert, & Burlingame, 2000;Vermeersch et al, 2004).…”

“…The OQ-30 is comprised of the 30 OQ-45 items that are the most sensitive to client change (Vermeersch et al, 2000(Vermeersch et al, , 2004. The OQ-30 assesses the same domains as the OQ-45: subjective discomfort/symptoms, problems in interpersonal relationships, and problems in social role performance.…”

Impact of Clinician Expectations on Termination Status and Therapeutic Outcome

“…Furthermore, the OQ45.2 shows no significant differences based upon gender or ethnicity (Nebeker, Lambert, & Huefner, 1995). An investigation of the specificity and sensitivity to change during treatment found that the OQ45.2 is largely sensitive to change based on both the overall score as well as the three subscale scores (Vermeersch, Lambert, & Burlingame, 2000;Vermeersch et al, 2004).…”