Hamilton Anxiety Scale - Cross-Examining Psych Doctors, Tip #81

            The Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS) is frequently cited in psychological testing sections of psychological reports.  However, the HAS is not a psychological test since it does not administer any physical material to the person being “tested” (Hamilton, 1959).  The HAS is simply a list of what was accepted in 1959 as fourteen frequently accepted symptoms or complaints of anxiety.  Instead of presenting the patient with any material to respond to, as is done with a psychological test, the doctor examining the patient simply rates the patient on a five-point scale according to how extensively the doctor believes the patient is experiencing each of the thirteen symptoms.  As such, the HAS does not obtain any objective measures of the patient but is simply an alternate way of the doctor subjectively stating their opinion that the patient has anxiety.  In a medical-legal context, the Hamilton Anxiety Scale has no known objective relationship to the existence of any DSM psychological disorders.