The 12 Assessment Instruments For Anxiety Disorders
Currently, a large part of the world’s population lives in a globalized society, which experiences continuous changes at high speed, so people often have difficulties adapting to them and, with this, cases of suffering from anxiety are increasing.
Given the high prevalence of anxiety disorders within the world population, professionals increasingly have greater demands for their detection and treatment, which is why a large multitude of assessment instruments for anxiety disorders have been developed. anxiety, as well as specific psychological treatments.
In this article We will talk about the most used instruments to evaluate anxiety disordersfinding some both to measure anxiety as a general construct, as well as to measure various more specific anxiety disorders (for example, phobias, generalized anxiety, etc.).
The most used assessment instruments for anxiety disorders
These are the assessment instruments for anxiety disorders that are most frequently used in the field of clinical psychology.
1. State-Trait Anxiety Questionnaire (STAI)
The Questionnaire to measure state anxiety and trait anxiety developed by Spielberger and his collaborators is one of the most used assessment instruments for anxiety disorders, not to mention that it could be the one most used by professionals.
State anxiety is defined as a process of intense emotional activation when faced with a stimulus that the person perceives as dangerous or when anticipating it., so he implements some actions in order to anticipate or protect himself from it, such as acts of escape and avoidance of the risks that he considers he will run if he faces the feared situation. In this case, the person feels anxious at a specific moment and usually calms down when the stimulus that he considers dangerous has disappeared, but he does not have to have a predisposition to feel that way.
In the case of trait anxiety, the symptoms experienced by the person are quite similar to those felt in a case of state anxiety; However, in this case the person has a greater predisposition to feel anxiety, and may even experience feelings of restlessness and worry without any stimulus in the environment that has triggered them. In this case, it could be said that when a case of trait anxiety is detected, it is because the person evaluated usually experiences states of tension on a regular basis.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the STAI questionnaire for anxiety is made up of 2 scales of 20 items each; one being to measure state anxiety and the other to measure trait anxiety. In addition, its items are answered on a Likert scale (from 0 to 3) and scores can range from 20 to 80 points, this score being directly proportional, in an ascending manner, to the degree of anxiety experienced by the person evaluated.
This is one of the assessment instruments for anxiety disorders that can also be used during the assessment process for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), eating disorders (TCA), among others.
2. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
This instrument was developed mainly for the purpose of measure clinical anxiety or a state of anxiety prolonged over time. Unlike other instruments for evaluating anxiety disorders that are also used to evaluate cases of depression, such as the STAI, the BAI is responsible for measuring anxiety in a more specific way, because its items have a lower content related to depression.
This inventory to measure anxiety was developed by Aaron Beck and Robert A. Steer, in order to measure anxiety in a wide variety of clinical patients and in the general population aged 13 years and older. On the other hand, This inventory is made up of 21 items that must be answered on a Likert-type scale. with a score of 0 to 3 points per item, so the maximum anxiety score would be when reaching 63 points.
The cut-off points of this inventory to measure anxiety are the following:
Other assessment instruments for anxiety disorders
Below we will briefly explain some of the most used instruments to measure other anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social phobia and selective mutism.
The Spanish version of this questionnaire, developed by SandÃn, is composed of 11 items that serve to make the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder in a short time. It is relevant to highlight that its items are focused mainly on providing information about the characteristics of the evaluated person’s concerns; although it has the DSM-IV criteria as a reference, since no new or revised edition has been made.
1.2 Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ)
This questionnaire It contains 16 items that are used to carry out an evaluation of pathological and generalized worry., that is, a worry that is uncontrollable and excessive. Its most modern version is number 11 (PSWQ-11).
2. Instruments to evaluate panic disorder
Next, we will briefly explain some of the anxiety disorder assessment instruments that have been developed more specifically for panic disorders and agoraphobia.
2.1 Agoraphobia Inventory (AI)
The Spanish version of this questionnaire has been developed by Echeburúa and collaborators and It is made up of 69 items that have been developed to evaluate the symptoms of agoraphobia..
This inventory is divided into 2 parts:
Part 1: to assess avoidance, bodily sensations, and related cognitions.
Part 2: to evaluate a series of possible moderating factors of those anxiety responses.
2.2 Panic and Agoraphobia Questionnaire (CPA)
This questionnaire consists of 40 items to evaluate and diagnose panic disorder and agoraphobiafollowing the DSM-IV criteria.
The advantages of this test are the following:
It allows you to detect the severity of panic attacks.
Enables the diagnosis of panic disorder and agoraphobia.
It is used to detect coping with panic, interoceptive avoidance and agoraphobia, among others.
It has been developed by SandÃn and collaborators, and revised in 2015. It is composed of 14 items that evaluate three relevant factors of panic disorder. through 3 scales:
The severity of panic.
Catastrophic interpretations of panic.
Individual self-efficacy in the face of panic.
2.4 Panic Attacks Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (CAPN)
It is a 28-item version to evaluate and diagnose panic disorder, being a version developed specifically for children and adolescents.
In this section we will see what instruments are usually used in the clinical field of psychology to evaluate phobias.
3.1 Inventory of School Fears (IME)
This is one of the assessment instruments for anxiety disorders, although this is more specific, since it is more focused on the anxiety symptoms experienced in the face of certain school fears. There are 3 different versions, each focused on a population group of a specific stage of evolutionary development.
It is used to evaluate fears related to the school context: fear of physical discomfort, school failure, punishment, social evaluation, among others.
3.2 Fears questionnaire for children FSSC-Spanish (FSSC-E)
It is made up of 80 items and has an abbreviated version (25 items) and updated from 2016, carried out by SandÃn and collaborators.
This is a questionnaire used to evaluate fear of danger, death, animals, strangers, social fears and medical fears.
3.3 Fear Inventory FSS-III-66
The Spanish version has 60 topics and is used to evaluate the following phobias: social fears, agoraphobic fears, fears of what is unfamiliar or unfamiliar, fears of blood-injections, harm and fears of animals.
4. Instruments to evaluate separation anxiety disorder (SAD)
The following are some of the most commonly used assessment instruments for separation anxiety disorders.
4.1 Separation Anxiety Symptom Inventory (SASI)
This questionnaire consists of 15 items and It is used to evaluate separation anxiety retrospectively in people who are already adults.although it focuses on evaluating separation anxiety caused at an early age.
This 26-item questionnaire is focused on children between 6 and 11 years of age. It fundamentally evaluates concern about separation, discomfort about separation, and tranquility in the face of separation.. It also has a version for the child’s parents to answer.
4.3 Early Onset Separation Anxiety Questionnaire (CASIT)
This questionnaire consists of 24 items and is aimed at a very small population group (children aged 3-5 years). It is applied by the child’s parents and it evaluates separation anxiety in relation to sleeping, day-to-day events or the loss or damage of a loved one.
