Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health condition in the United States. Medical providers often have many active issues when treating a patient, and do not always have time for a thorough psychiatric evaluation. The Patient Health Questionnaire 2, a two-question binary (yes/no) screening tool, has been developed to address these issues in the identification of unipolar depression. No similar binary screening tool has been developed to comprehensively screen for anxiety disorders. Our study seeks to develop a three-question, comprehensive, binary screening tool for anxiety and related disorders such that these patients can be easily identified and connected to treatment. Our pilot data shows promising results for our three-question binary Rapid Anxiety Screen (the RAS). Future studies will look to confirm these preliminary data and determine the sensitivities and specificities of the RAS with a larger data set.
Keywords: Internal medicine; anxiety; primary care; rapid screening tool.