Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A)
| Name of questionnaire | Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A) |
| Type of questionnaire-description,age | Assesses anxiety symptoms; most widely used as an outcomemeasure in treatment of general anxiety disorder |
| Number of items | 14 |
| Number of domains & categories | 2 |
| Name of categories/domains | psychic subscale and somatic subscale |
| Scaling of items | 0-4 |
| Scoring available: with permission or free | Free |
| Scoring Test-retest reliability | Yes |
| Scoring Internal consistency | Y alpha=0.77 to 0.92 |
| Validity | Y, compared with clinical assessment and Covi anxiety scale |
| Language | English |
| Translations in other languages (if yes, then list the languages) | Cantonese, French, Spanish |
| Developer name | Max Hamilton, MD |
| Developer contact information | Deceased |
| Availability of questionnaire: needs permission from developer, cost or freely available | public domain |
| Limitations | Anxiolytic and antidepressant effects cannot be clearly distinguished. HAM-A was unable to detect anxiety states in our sample of depressed patients. |
| Link to the questionnaire (if available) | Click Here to View the Questionaire |
| Other comments | Clinician administered, semi-structured; structured interview guide available (SIGH-A); sensitivity to change during anxiolytic treatment is good |
| References (original publication) | Hamilton, M., Diagnosis and rating of anxiety. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1969. Special Publication No 3.: pp. 76–79. |
| Maier W, Buller R, Philipp M, Heuser I. The Hamilton Anxiety Scale: reliability, validity and sensitivity to change in anxiety and depressive disorders. J Affect Disord 1988;14(1):61–8. |
