Validation of the University of São Paulo’s Sensory Phenomena Scale — English version

IntroductionSensory 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.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to validate the English version of the USP-SPS and to examine its psychometric properties.Material and MethodsSixty 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.ResultsThe USP-SPS symptom checklist showed good sensitivity in all ages, however its severity scale did not show good validity results for the pediatric population.