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The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) is proposed as an instrument to assess clinical anxiety and to discriminate anxious and nonanxious diagnostic groups. To study the discriminant validity of the Turkish version, we compared the BAI responses of four different diagnostic groups: a depressive patient group (major depression, dysthymic disorder) (n = 31); an anxious patient group (panic disorder, phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, etc.) (n = 39); a mixed patient group (major depression and panic disorder, etc.) (n = 75) and a control group of sexual dysfunction patients without depression and anxiety (n = 32). The one-way analysis of variance revealed that the BAI fared better in this study in discriminating the anxious patient group from the other groups, compared to the STAI. The BAI was moderately correlated with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hopelessness Scale (HS), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The BAI showed a high internal consistency (alpha = .93). The item-total correlations ranged from .45 to .72. The exploratory factor analysis using the principal components procedure yielded two factors. The results favor the use of the BAI as a reliable and valid measure of anxiety with Turkish psychiatric populations.
The importance of reliable and valid assessment instruments in psychology has always been recognized in making informed decisions for treatment planning, execution and evaluation of treatment. Within the new healthcare system, with its emphasis on continuous quality improvement, sensitive psychological instruments will be in demand more than ever (Maruish, 1994). These instruments will, no doubt, assist the progress of basic research, which establishes the foundation on which these treatment programs are built.
One example of these basic research questions is the relationship between anxiety and depression, which continues to be an intriguing area of investigation and which is approached from different vantage points. While some researchers propose an interactional approach (Dobson, 1985), others point to the necessity of a diagnosis of mixed anxiety-depression disorder (Clark & Watson, 1991; Katon & Roy-Byrne, 1991), and another group suggests a continuum in the two disorders; anxiety preceding depression (Lesse, 1982). Some researchers approached the issue from a psychometric point of view, studying the performance of different diagnostic groups on the tests of anxiety and depression (Lipman, 1982). Such an approach...