Background: Measuring the progress of mental health treatment aids in assessment and monitoring of psychotherapeutic outcomes. The OQ-45 is a widely accepted measure of such outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate the Hebrew and Arabic versions of the OQ-45.Method: Data were collected from three samples: non patient university students (n=189), university mental health clinic patients (n=37), and outpatient mental health clinic patients (n=135). Subjects completed the OQ-45 as well as the BSI and PHQ-9 questionnaires.Results: Test-retest and internal reliability, and concurrent and discriminative validity of both OQ-45 versions were satisfactory. Sensitivity of the Hebrew and Arabic versions was 0.70 and 0.80, respectively, and the specificity was 0.69and 0.93, respectively. Sensitivity-to-change was noted only for the Symptom Distress (SD) subscale.Limitations: Sensitivity-to-change was not demonstrated for the total OQ-45, possibly due to a too-short follow-up period.Conclusions: Adequate psychometric properties of the Hebrew and Arabic OQ-45 suggest that they can serve as useful measures of mental health treatment in Israel.Further research is necessary to confirm norms, cut-off scores and sensitivity-to-change using a larger representative population and diverse types of treatment over a longer period of time.

Gross R, Glasser S, Elisha D, Tishby O, Madar Jacobson D, Levitan G, et al. Validation of the Hebrew and Arabic Versions of the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45). Israel Journal of Psychiatry & Related Sciences. 2015;52(1):33-9.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25841108