The revised Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire (BAVQ-R)

Background We present a revised Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire (BAVQ-R) , a self-report measure of patients' beliefs, emotions and behaviour about auditory hallucinations. Aims To improve measurement to omnipotence, a pivotal concept in understand ing auditory hallucinations, and elucidate links between beliefs about voic es, anxiety and depression. Methods Seventy-one participants with chronic auditory hallucinations compl eted the BAVQ-R, and 58 also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results The mean Cronbach's alpha for the five sub-scales was 0.86 (range 0 .74-0.88). The study supports hypotheses about links between beliefs, emoti ons and behaviour, and presents original data on how these relate to the ne w omnipotence sub-scale. Original data are also presented on connections wi th anxiety and depression. Conclusions The BAVQ-R is more reliable and sensitive to individual differe nces than the original version, and reliably measures omnipotence. Declaration of interest This study was supported by a University of Southam pton grant to the first author.