There are several tools that can be used to measure
anxiety, such as The Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety
(HAM-A), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Brief
Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the HADS. The HADS was
created expressly for gauging depression and anxiety in
medical patients. It excludes physical symptoms including
insomnia and fatigue, as they can also be attributed to other
illnesses, and focuses specifically on affective symptoms. This
tool is a self-report questionnaire and includes 14 items to be
assessed, with higher scores signifying more excessive levels
of depression and anxiety. According to Lee et al. (2007),
the HADS is more appropriate for use in pregnant women
because numerous physical symptoms are common in pregnancy,
which are not necessarily indicators of anxiety. The
other tools for measuring anxiety potentially overestimate
the occurrence due to this phenomenon. If it is determined
through the use of the HADS or other assessment methods
that a pregnant woman is experiencing an unhealthy level of
anxiety, she should be referred to her obstetrician’s office for
assessment and coordination of the treatment plan.