Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-OM)

Clinical intent

The CORE Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) is a self-report measure of psychological distress designed to be administered during a course of treatment to determine treatment response. The broad spectrum nature of the measure means it captures a wide variety of problems associated with mental health difficulties, beyond typical symptom measures.

The client is asked to respond to 34 questions about how they have been feeling over the last week, using a 5-point scale. The scale covers four dimensions:

1. Subjective well-being
2. Problems/symptoms
3. Life functioning
4. Risk/harm

When the questionnaire is administered periodically comparison of the pre-and post-therapy scores offers a robust measure of ‘outcome’ (i.e. whether or not the client’s level of distress has changed, and by how much).

Clinical interpretation

Higher scores represent poorer overall functioning.

References

[1] Evans C, Connell J, Barkham M, Margison F, McGrath G, Mellor-Clark J, Audin K. Towards a standardised brief outcome measure: psychometric properties and utility of the CORE-OM. Br J Psychiatry. 2002 Jan;180:51-60.