Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale

HAM-A — 14 items — clinician-rated

A clinician-rated scale for the severity of anxiety. Rate it during or after your interview with the client.

For clinicians

The HAM-A is completed by you, not the client. After a clinical interview, rate each of the 14 symptom areas from 0 (not present) to 4 (very severe).

Ratings stay on this device and aren't saved anywhere.

Send to a client

This is a clinician-rated scale — you fill it in during or after the session — so it isn’t sent to clients.

About the HAM-A

The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale is filled in by the clinician, not the client. After talking with the person, you rate 14 areas of anxiety — from worry and tension to physical symptoms like a racing heart or stomach upset.

It’s one of the longest-standing measures of anxiety severity, and is still widely used to track how symptoms change over time.

Items: 14
Time: 15–20 minutes
Rated by: Clinician
Score range: 0–56

How it’s scored

Each area is rated from 0 (not present) to 4 (very severe), giving a total from 0 to 56. Items 1–6 and 14 make up psychic anxiety (the mental side) and items 7–13 somatic anxiety (the physical side).

The severity ranges below are commonly used, but published cut-offs vary between sources. Treat them as a rough guide rather than firm thresholds.

HAM-A score ranges
Score	Severity
0–17	Mild anxiety
18–24	Mild to moderate anxiety
25–30	Moderate to severe anxiety
31–56	Severe anxiety

Good to know

Ratings depend on the interview, so a consistent, semi-structured approach makes scores more comparable over time.
Many items are physical, so medical conditions and some medicines can raise the score.
It overlaps quite a lot with depression symptoms, so it doesn’t separate the two well.
It isn’t a diagnosis, and it doesn’t assess risk.

Source