Research - OQ Measures

Our greatest strength is our close relationship with the researchers and developers of the OQ^® Family of measures. OQ Measures original founding partners, Dr. Michael Lambert and Dr. Gary Burlingame, are considered the pioneers of routine outcome measurement research being the first in the field, and are highly regarded across the global psychology research community for their life work in feedback-informed treatment (FIT) using routine outcome monitoring to forge the way to standardizing measurement-based care in mental and behavioral health.

Our founding partners are a critical piece of the OQ^® Measures legacy, ensuring that our instruments are always improving through their continuing research. With research going back 30 years, Dr. Lambert and Dr. Burlingame have contributed to over 100 articles published to date. With a wide spectrum of quality outcome measures to choose from, our advantage is a solid and reputable research base that has contributed to our customers’ success in improving outcomes in a healthcare environment that is continually changing.

While most mental health products are designed to test for specific symptomatology and to assign diagnoses, OQ measures are uniquely designed to track change during patient treatment and provide algorithms for detecting negative outcomes prior to treatment failure.

There are 3 extremely critical components that make a legitimate outcome measure:

Sensitivity – An instrument cannot monitor progress if it is not highly sensitive, with the ability to detect change from session-to-session.

Reliable Change Index (RCI) – If an instrument has not performed the research necessary to determine a legitimate RCI to reflect clinically significant change, then it is not a true outcome measure.

Expected Recovery Curve – A substantial amount of research is required to develop an expected recovery curve. Only available with an OQ^®-Analyst web-based license, expected recovery curves make it easy for you to track change from week-to-week, and generate accurate early warning treatment failure alerts.

The empirical and rational algorithms used to predict at-risk patients has been thoroughly tested in over twenty randomized clinical trials (RCT) worldwide published in the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals, with all studies positively confirming that our measures reduce treatment failures. The RCT’s have been duplicated in Germany, The Netherlands, South America, and several other international locations.

The RCT’s show the algorithms’ ability to identify between 85-100% of at-risk cases BEFORE a negative outcome. This research has also shown that providing feedback to therapists significantly increased patient progress and maximized treatment effectiveness to yield improved patient care and reallocation of therapists’ time to cases in need of special attention.

The OQ^® and Y-OQ^® instruments are the results of a unique partnership between behavioral health care administrators, mental health practitioners, and academic researchers. To learn more, contact sales@oqmeasures.com.

To learn more, read about all of our measures.

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The adult Outcome Questionnaire^® (OQ^®-45.2) and its closely related child-adolescent version, the Youth Outcome Questionnaire^® (Y-OQ^®-2.01 and SR 2.0), have, for a number of years, been recognized as one of the leading outcome tracking methodologies for quantifying and evaluating the progress of behavioral health therapy. These outcome measures have been widely adopted by a variety of behavioral and other health care service organizations (e.g. small clinics, large heath care institutions, university counseling centers and all branches of the military) since their release in the early 1990s and are currently being used on 5 continents in over 40 different languages.

The OQ^® and Y-OQ^® are the result of a unique partnership between behavioral health care administrators, practitioners, and academic researchers in response to the changing mental health arena and the accompanying demands for quality healthcare, reliable monitoring, and accountability for services provided. While most mental health products are designed to test for specific symptomatology and assign diagnoses, our measures are uniquely designed to track change during patient treatment and provide algorithms for detecting negative outcomes prior to treatment failure.

The OQ^® and Y-OQ^® instruments utilize Change Metrics such as a Reliable Change Index (RCI) and cutoff score to define standards for clinically significant change achieved during mental health treatment (i.e., classifying patient change as recovered, improved, no change or deterioration). This approach cuts across treatment models, diagnoses, and disciplines, and is thus applicable in a wide variety of settings and can facilitate comparison among these and other variables.

The empirical and rational algorithms used to predict treatment failures have been thoroughly tested in over 15 randomized clinical trials (RCT) showing the decision rules ability to identify between 85-100% of the failing cases BEFORE the patient terminates treatment. This research has also shown that providing feedback to therapists regarding patient outcomes significantly reduces treatment failures and maximizes treatment effectiveness yielding improve patient care and a reallocation of therapist time to cases in need of special attention. The following is a partial list of references for articles discussing OQ^® and Y-OQ^® instruments. For a complete list or more information please contact OQ Measures.

The problem is not learning: Facilitated acquisition of stimulus equivalence classes among low-achieving college students.

Adcock, A., Merwin, R., Wilson, K., Drake, C., Tucker, C., & Elliot, C. (2010). The problem is not learning: Facilitated acquisition of stimulus equivalence classes among low-achieving college students. The Psychological Record, 60, 43-56. Retrieved from https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=tpr CIP

This study involved a group of undergraduate participants from a university who either had high grade-point averages or low grade-point averages. They were given a task to perform that involved “matching-to-sample” and the task ended in the participants dividing stimuli into 3 classes. One of the stimuli was “emotionally evocative” while the others were not. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the evocative stimuli would produce greater learning. The results indicated that the “emotionally evocative” words which described academic failure produced greater learning among those with the lower grade-point averages. The OQ-45 was administered to the students “as a measure of general distress.

History and Science behind OQ^(™) Family of Instruments

The adult Outcome Questionnaire (OQ®) and its closely related child-adolescent version, the Youth Outcome Questionnaire™ (Y-OQ®), have, for a number of years, been recognized as one of the leading outcome tracking methodologies for quantifying and evaluating the progress of behavioral health therapy. These outcome measures have been widely adopted by a variety of behavioral and other health care service organizations (e.g. small clinics, large heath care institutions, university counseling centers and all branches of the military) since their release in the early 1990s and are currently being used on f continents in 17 different languages.

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The problem is not learning: Facilitated acquisition of stimulus equivalence classes among low-achieving college students.

History and Science behind OQ(™) Family of Instruments

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History and Science behind OQ^(™) Family of Instruments