Ham anxiety scale; Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A)

Introduction

The most widely used scale for measuring anxiety.

Subjects are rated from an interview on 14 items, according to their severity. It is designed for rating the severity of anxiety rather than for the diagnosis of anxiety disorders.

Advantages

• very reliable
  • gold standard for treatment outcome studies
• measures severity of anxiety

Disadvantages

• not useful for measuring generalized anxiety in other psychiatric or medical illnesses
• bias towards somatic experiences
• requires trained clinician raters

More general terms

• anxiety assessment