Measuring and assessing your anxiety levels
Doctors and therapists use a tool called the Hamilton anxiety rating scale to assist them in ascertaining how serious a patient’s anxiety actually is. The patient is given fourteen relevant questions which are based upon typical symptoms that people suffer from. The questions are mostly answered by the person suffering from anxiety. The last question though is answered by the counsellor or therapist.
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In 1959, there was no other test that was able to measure the psychic and somatic or physical levels of an anxiety sufferer. As a result Max Hamilton created the HARS test. The test can be used on people of all age groups with recent evidence to show that it is particularly suitable for older people The questions are based upon a list of symptoms that Hamilton created by using mathematical statistics.
The test is usually given by a doctor or other qualified personnel. Each answer is then rated from 0-4 with 0 being the lowest level of anxiety. When the test is finished, the doctor or therapist tots up the scores and uses the total to make a determination of the patients anxiety levels. There are 7 questions that are focused on the mental aspects of a patients condition and a further 7 focusing on the physical aspects.
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After adding up the results, it is felt that if a person has a score of less than 17 that this person only has mild anxiety which can be easily addressed through therapy. This may not always hold true. Many people will try to mask their true feeling out of embarressment. A properly trained therapist will be best equipped to get the real answers from the patient and will therefore get the best results. Moderate anxiety is indicated by scores of 18-24 and can be helped if the patient applies techniques such as breathing correctly or meditation. If the patient scores over 25 then they have a hgh degree of anxiety. When anxiety is this bad there may be a call for the short term use of medication which can be used in conjunction with CBT and other relaxation techniques.
While the test is useful to help therapists to understand a patient’s level of anxiety, it is only as good as the skills of the therapist and the answers are very much subject to interpretation. In fact the questions reflect not only the patients answers but the therapists interpretation of the answers. This can lead to a certain margin for error but overall the test has been proven to work quite well. However questions have been raised regarding the similarity between the responses by those who suffer from anxiety and those who suffer from depression, since those who suffer from depression often score high on the HARS test.
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The HARS test is probably the most frequently used test to measure anxiety despite the fact that the results can sometimes be skewed. The reality is that over very many years HARS has demonstrated that it is accurate and consistent. When used together with the appropriate treatments, many patients are able to find themselves cured of their anxiety and panic.