Beck anxiety inventory (BAI)

Introduction

21 item questionnaire. 14 items reflect somatic symptoms. 7 items reflect cognitive symptoms. The BAI assesses frequency of anxiety symptoms over 1 week, attempting to minimize their relationship with depression.

Disadvantages

• less widely used than other anxiety assessment tools
• proprietary tool; may require licensing fee
• may be more time-consuming than other tools
• does not assess worry & other cognitive aspects of anxiety, thus may provide a limited assessment of anxiety
• reliability may be low in a non-psychiatric population

More general terms

• anxiety assessment