Obsessions and compulsions: The Padua Inventory

The Padua Inventory (PI) consists of 60 items describing common obsessional and compulsive behavior and allows investigation of the topography of such problems in normal and clinical Ss. It was administered to 967 normal Italian Ss, ranging in age from 16 to 70 yr. Inventory consistency and 1-month reliability were satisfactory. Females reported more complaints, more intensely than males. Ss aged from 16 to 20 yr and Ss aged from 46 to 70 complain of more obsessions and compulsions than Ss of intermediate ages. Four factors were identified: impaired control of mental activities, becoming contaminated, checking behaviors, urges and worries of losing control over motor behaviors. The PI correlates with the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Questionnaire (0.70), Leyton Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory (0.71 with Symptom and 0.66 with Trait scales) and Self-rating Obsessional Scale (0.61). Furthermore, it allows discrimination between a group of 75 outpatients with obsessive-compulsive disorders and a similar group of outpatients with other neurotic disorders. Relationships with fears and neuroticism traits were also found, reflected in moderately high correlations with the Fear Survey Schedule and the Neuroticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.