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Screening for anxiety disorders

Sensitivity and specificity of the Anxiety Screening Questionnaire (ASQ–15)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Hans-Ulrich Wittchen  and
Patrice Boyer
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Abstract

Background The paper describes the rationale, sensitivity and specificity of the Anxiety Screening Questionnaire (ASQ), a disorder-specific screening instrument for use in primary care.

Method Two hundred and fifty subjects sampled from psychiatric, primary care settings and the community, participated in a test-retest reliability as well as a procedural validity study, using the M–CIDI with DSM–IV algorithms as a diagnostic yardstick.

Results The ASQ was found to be easy to administer and acceptable and efficient in terms of sensitivity and specificity for generalised anxiety syndromes. The test– retest item reliability was good to excellent with kappa values of 0.6 or above. As compared with the validity standard, the DSM – IV/CIDI diagnoses caseness sensitivity was generally high (above 82%) for all diagnostic domains covered, whereas the specificity was only high for DSM – IV threshold and subthreshold generalised anxiety disorder.

Conclusions These preliminary findings demonstrate the usefulness of this anxiety screening questionnaire, constructed closely following the guidelines of specific diagnostic criteria.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 173 , Issue S34: Recognition and management of anxiey syndromes , July 1998 , pp. 10 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1998 

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