Phobias: 11 questionnaires and rating scales

The Phobia, Panic, and Generalized Anxiety (PPAG) test is a psychometric tool designed to assess the presence and intensity of anxiety disorders. It identifies symptoms related to specific phobias, characterized by irrational fears of certain objects or situations. It also measures panic disorder, marked by sudden panic attacks, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which manifests as excessive and persistent worry. The scale can be repeated to compare a baseline, a treatment period, and a follow-up. It corresponds to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-IV.

The Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire (ACQ) is used to assess the frequency of the irrational, catastrophic thoughts a person believes they are likely to have when in a situation of anxiety or panic. It helps identify the specific thought patterns that fuel fear and avoidance in adults with agoraphobia or panic disorder.

The DPSS-R is a 16-item self-report questionnaire that measures two dimensions of trait disgust: disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity. Propensity refers to how easily or how often a person experiences disgust, while sensitivity describes how unpleasant, worrying, or hard to tolerate this experience is perceived to be. The tool is particularly useful in clinical psychology and research for exploring the role of disgust in specific phobias, fear of blood and injections, contamination concerns, certain obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and various anxiety presentations. Its main value is to assess disgust across situations, without being limited to specific triggering objects or situations, which helps refine the functional analysis and the hypotheses about what maintains the symptoms.

The Social Phobia Weekly Summary Scale is a self-report tool designed to measure the severity and frequency of social phobia symptoms on a weekly basis. It helps psychologists track symptom changes in patients with social phobia and adjust treatment plans if necessary.

The Mobility Inventory for Agoraphobia is an assessment tool used to measure avoidance of situations perceived as difficult or dangerous by individuals with agoraphobia. It focuses on the degree of avoidance when a person is alone compared with when they are accompanied.

The Philipps School Phobia Test is designed to assess the presence and intensity of school phobia in children and adolescents. It makes it possible to identify school-related fears that can interfere with the child's ability to attend school and take part in academic activities.

The ECAP is a self-report scale for children and adolescents aged 8 to 17, used to identify fears and phobic anxiety. It explores both the overall intensity of fears and their behavioral impact, particularly through the avoidance of certain situations. The tool provides a total score as well as several clinically useful dimensions: phobic avoidance, self-image and sense of competence, interactions with the peer group, and fear of dangers threatening the physical integrity of the child or their parents. In practice, the ECAP can help the psychologist objectify anxious manifestations, pinpoint areas of vulnerability, and guide the clinical assessment or therapeutic follow-up.

The Fear Survey Schedule (FSS) is a self-report questionnaire measuring the intensity of various irrational or phobic fears across six broad categories (animals, social situations, illness/bodily injury, noises, classic phobias, miscellaneous fears). It yields an overall score but also points to specific fear profiles, which makes it a useful tool for identifying phobic components to target in exposure therapy.

The Specific Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ) is a self-report tool for identifying the presence and severity of a person's specific phobias across a wide range of feared situations. It identifies the type of specific phobia (animal, natural environment, blood-injection-injury, situational, etc.), its frequency, and its impact on daily life.

This questionnaire is designed to assess phobias and anxiety-related disorders. It was developed by psychologists Isaac Marks and Andrew Mathews.

The Social Phobia Rating Scale (SPRS) is an assessment tool used to measure the intensity of social phobia in patients. Designed to be easy to understand and complete, it can help assess the impact of this phobia on the individual's daily activities. The tool is used particularly in therapeutic follow-up to measure the progression of symptoms over time.