Beck Anxiety Inventory German Version - A Reliable, Valid, Patientfriendly Instrument for Measuring Clinical Anxiety

The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) is available in German. Apart from data in its manual, there are no further reports on the psychometric properties of this questionnaire and on its suitability for clinical use in Germany. This study therefore offers an independent investigation into the psychometrics as well as the clinical characteristics of the BAI. Three samples with n = 145, n = 90, and n = 174 comprised inpatients diagnosed with anxiety disorders and treated in a large psychosomatic hospital. In addition to the BAI, the clinician rating Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HamA), the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI) as well as the two anxiety subscales of the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL 90) were used to establish convergent validity. For divergent validity, patients filled out questionnaires measuring the motivational construct of Action versus State Orientation as well as the motivational scale of the Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI). The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II) and a single item targeting a patient's psychotherapy goal achievement complemented the measures. Data collection times were admission to inpatient treatment, discharge from the hospital, and 6-month follow-up. For a subsample of patients, additional data from the weeks prior to hospital admission allowed for a test of the nonspecific Hope for Success in the absence of therapy. The inpatient intervention consisted of approximately 6 weeks of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. The German BAI is considered to be unidimensional. It is a homogeneous, reli-able (3-day test-retest) inventory with excellent item characteristics. The data suggested good convergent validity with other anxiety measures, and divergent validity. However, the BAI and the BDI-II exhibited a midrange correlation with each other, which was an unexpected result. Groups of patients with different diagnoses could be differentiated. The questionnaire shows sensitivity to specific and nonspecific change. Goal attainment goes along with BAI results. In conclusion, the BAI is a psychometrically sound inventory; it is brief, user-friendly and therefore appropriate for use in inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy settings.