Assessment of Anxiety Disorder
Here in this post, we are providing the “Assessment of Anxiety Disorder “. You can discuss more your concerns about mental health in our community, and we will provide you with tips and solutions in a short time. Keep visiting Mental Health.
Assessment
A systematic process of obtaining information from participants and using it to make inferences or judgments about them. In a clinical context, this process is known as a psychological assessment.
Following factors should be considered for the assessment of anxiety disorders
- Nature
- Duration
- The severity of the presenting disorder
- Associated functional impairment
- Confirmation/rejection of Prognosis
For identifying either a person has anxiety disorders or not following step should be done:
- Take a full history of mental disorder
- History of physical health problem.
- Conduct mental state examination
- Cause of anxiety such as substance abuse or medical condition.
- Carefully observes social, functional, and social problems that a person undergoes.
- Obtain history from family, friends, or caregiver, if you have consent related to family involvement, and family involvement is considered appropriate.
- For the assessment of anxiety disorders cultural and religious factors should also be considered.
- Psychiatric history should also be taken.
- Past episodes of anxiety should also be noted.
- If the person has past history of treatment, then the response of that treatment should also note.
- Assess risk and safety factors.
- Notice a person has suicidal ideation or not.
- The quality of interpersonal relationships
- Living conditions and social isolation
- A family history of mental illness
- A history of domestic violence or sexual abuse
- Employment and immigration status.
Questions during Assessment
For Assessment, a variety of questions were asked. These questions are related to a variety of different areas of personal life such as
- Home and environment
- Activities
- Education and employment
- Relationships and sexuality
- Anxiety symptoms and suicide risk
- Drugs and alcohol
- Sleep and eating
- Conduct difficulties and risk-taking
- Psychotic symptoms
Assessment of young people
Young people are less likely to seek help from health professionals because they are not independent. They visit mental health professionals by their parents.
The major challenge psychologists face during the assessment of anxiety disorder is to differentiate pathology of normally developed appropriate fears and worries from abnormal ones.
Anxiety disorders show extreme presentation of normal events. This difference is made on the basis of severity, degree of associated impairment, and persistence of symptoms.
Assessment Tools
Following tools are used for assessment of anxiety such as
- Structured Interview
- Questionnaire
Structured interview
A structured interview is done for the assessment of anxiety disorders in children. The most widely used diagnostic schedule is
- Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for children and parents (ADIS-C/P)
Questionnaire for Children
Following questionnaire used for assessment of anxiety disorders in children.
- Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS)
- The Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS)
These tools help o identify anxiety in young and children. These are also helpful to monitor the progress of treatment.
Questionnaire for Adult
Following questionnaire used for assessment of anxiety disorders in adults.
- Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
- Depression Anxiety Stress Scales
- Hamilton Anxiety Scale(HAM-A)
- The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale(Y-BOCS).
These questionnaires are not a diagnostic tool but used to assess more effectively.