Beck Anxiety Inventory

The Beck Anxiety Inventory is used for measuring the severity of anxiety. It was developed by the famous American psychiatrist, Aaron Temkin Beck, a professor that studied and did research on psychopathology, psychotherapy, suicide and psychotics. These studies led him to create and develop cognitive therapy, a cornerstone for this Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory, which happens to be one of the most commonly used instruments for measuring and determining depression severity.

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) is a multiple choice “self-report inventory” that consists of 21 questions. A self-report inventory is a certain kind of psychological test where the patient fills out a questionnaire or test without the help or assistance of their mental health professional.

The patient is asked questions about their behavior, symptoms, and any type of personality traits they may portray that are characteristic of certain illnesses or mental disorders. The answers that are given by the patient on this self-report inventory are what are used on the Beck Anxiety Inventory to determine an accurate score.

The Beck Anxiety Inventory is made up of 21 questions and has a total score of 63. The questions ask the patient how they’ve been feeling for the past week in terms of anxiety symptoms such as hot or cold sweats, numbness, feelings of fear and strong apprehension, etc. Although the questions may be different, the choice of answers is the same for all the questions. The patient chooses the answer that most appropriately describes how they felt. The choice of answers range from “not at all”, “mildly”, moderately” to “severely” with the emphasis being on how much they were bothered.

Each symptom the patient has is rated on a 4-point scale that ranges from 0 to 3 and the sum of the ratings goes towards the total score.  The highest score a patient can get is 63.The Beck Anxiety Inventory is scored and interpreted by the Beck Computer Scoring. The Beck Anxiety Inventory is used for both adults and adolescents and is most accurate at assessing symptoms of panic. Although this has been used on adults, adolescents and elderly individuals, women with the same anxiety disorders as men tend to score a few points higher. The Beck Anxiety Inventory is a commonly used method for determining and measuring anxiety and is ranked as one of the top three methods used for this purpose.

Here is what the scores indicate about the patients.

0-7: Minimal level of anxiety
8-15: Mild anxiety
16-25: Moderate anxiety
26-63: Severe anxiety

The main purpose of the Beck Anxiety Inventory is to measure the distance between anxiety and depression so they can determine which symptoms are for depression and which ones are anxiety related. The Beck Anxiety Inventory, when orally administered (in the form of an interview) only takes about 10 minutes to complete and less than that if it is self-administered. It is most effective when it is used in research or clinical settings.