Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)

Heart racing for no clear reason? Hands get shaky in public places? Feel like you might lose control but do not know why?

That is what the BAI zeroes in on. Where the GAD-7 tracks the mental side of anxiety (constant worrying, cannot stop), the Beck Anxiety Inventory focuses on physical symptoms — 21 items covering heart palpitations, trembling, sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness, and that sense that something bad is about to happen.

Aaron Beck and his team published it in 1988, partly because the existing anxiety scales blurred too much with depression. Beck wanted something that could tell them apart, and the BAI still holds up as one of the better tools for that.

Each item is rated 0 (not at all) to 3 (severely, it bothered me a lot) for the past week. No reverse scoring — just add them up. Total range 0–63.

Score ranges:

• 0–7: Minimal (not clinically significant)
• 8–15: Mild
• 16–25: Moderate
• 26–63: Severe

The numbers are solid: Cronbach alpha .92–.94, one-week retest r = .75, convergent with STAI at r = .81. The BDI correlation is only .48–.56 — moderate, which is intentional. Beck picked items that would not get confused with depression, and the data backs that up.

One thing to know: the BAI is copyrighted by Pearson, so the full item set cannot be reproduced on public websites. If you just need a quick check, the GAD-7 and DASS-21 anxiety subscale are free and work fine.