The Beck Anxiety Inventory was developed to measure if one is experiencing a more serious type of anxiety. It was created by the very famous Aaron Temkin Beck, an American professor who has extensively focused on psychopathology, psychotherapy, suicide and psychotics. One of the most commonly used tools that measure and determine depression severity is this Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory, which has as base cognitive therapy.

21 multiple choice “self-report inventory” questions are the content of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). One of the available psychological test types is a self-reporting inventory, which allows patients fill out a test or a questionnaire without the aid of their psychologist. There are several questions asked from the patient about their symptoms, behaviour and any personality traits that might display a type of illness or mental disorder. Once the answers are added by the patient on the self-report inventory, they are then used on the Beck Anxiety inventory to determine the score.

The BAI test consists of 21 items and its total score is 63. Some of the questions that the patient has to answer to are related to anxiety symptoms such as numbness, strong fear and apprehension, hot or cold sweats, etc. Even though the questions may not be always the same, the choice of answers is the same for all questions. Depending on their feeling, the patient will choose the most appropriate answer. The patients can go with a range of 4 answers: “not at all”, “mildly”, “moderately” to “severely”, based on how much they were bothered when reading the question.

The found symptoms are rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 to 4 and the total is counted from the sum of the ratings. The maximum score a patient can have is 63. The scoring and interpreting of the Beck Anxiety Inventory is done by the Beck Computer Scoring. The Beck Anxiety Inventory is very accurate at assessing panic symptoms and it is used for both adults as well as adolescents. Interesting fact is that women usually score higher than men, given the same anxiety disorders, in all age groups: younger, adults and elderly as well. The mostly used method for assessing and measuring anxiety is the Beck Anxiety Method, and it sits at the top of the list among the 3 methods used for this purpose.

The scores indicated the following about the patients.

0-7: Minimal level of anxiety.
8-15: Mild level of anxiety.
16-25: Moderate anxiety.
26-63 indicates a serious anxiety level.

The Beck Anxiety Inventory measures the distance between anxiety and depression, determining the symptoms for each, and concluding which ones are anxiety related. When the Beck Anxiety Inventory is orally administered, by the means of an interview, it only takes around 10 minutes, and if it’s self-administered it takes even less than that. The BAI is best put to use in research or clinics and hospitals.

If you would like to learn more about the signs and symptoms of a panic attack, how to control panic attacks, or how to use the zung self rating scale for anxiety, please visit this site.