summary In clinical practice several measuring instruments are available for use with patients suffering from panic disorders with or without agoraphobia, social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. Most of the instruments are designed primarily to measure the severity of symptoms and to monitor any changes that occur in the course of treatment. We discuss a number of measuring instruments on the basis of their availability in Dutch/Flemish language areas, their user-friendly qualities in clinical practice and their usefulness for scientific research into anxiety disorders.