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Home› Physical Therapy› Free Self-Checks› Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ)

Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ)

19 questions on carpal tunnel symptoms and everyday hand tasks, scored from 1 to 5.

Your answers stay on your device. This tool runs only in your web browser. Nothing you enter is sent to us, saved or shared. Close the page and it’s gone.

The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ), also called the Brigham and Women’s Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire, asks 11 questions about carpal tunnel symptoms such as night pain, numbness and tingling, and 8 about how hard everyday hand tasks are. Hand therapists and physical therapists use it to measure carpal tunnel syndrome and track progress. It takes about 5 minutes.

📋 Patient questionnaire. Results should be reviewed with your therapist.

You can fill this in yourself; your therapist scores and interprets it with you. Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side, can be a stroke: call 911.

Instructions

The following questions refer to your symptoms for a typical 24-hour period during the past two weeks. Choose one answer to each question.

Symptom Severity Scale

1. How severe is the hand or wrist pain that you have at night?
2. How often did hand or wrist pain wake you up during a typical night in the past two weeks?
3. Do you typically have pain in your hand or wrist during the daytime?
4. How often do you have hand or wrist pain during the daytime?
5. How long, on average, does an episode of pain last during the daytime?
6. Do you have numbness (loss of sensation) in your hand?
7. Do you have weakness in your hand or wrist?
8. Do you have tingling sensations in your hand?
9. How severe is numbness (loss of sensation) or tingling at night?
10. How often did hand numbness or tingling wake you up during a typical night in the past two weeks?
11. Do you have difficulty with the grasping and use of small objects such as keys or pens?

Functional Status Scale

Have you had any difficulty doing the activities listed below because of your hand and wrist symptoms over a typical 24-hour period during the past two weeks?

1. Writing
2. Buttoning of clothes
3. Holding a book while reading
4. Gripping of a telephone handle
5. Opening of jars
6. Household chores
7. Carrying of grocery bags
8. Bathing and dressing

This is a questionnaire, not a diagnosis. The BCTQ shows how much hand and wrist symptoms affect you. It can’t confirm carpal tunnel syndrome or rule out other causes of numbness. Review your result with your therapist, your doctor or another licensed health care provider.

How it is scored

  • Symptom Severity Scale (SSS): the average of the 11 symptom answers, from 1 to 5.
  • Functional Status Scale (FSS): the average of the 8 activity answers, from 1 to 5.
  • Each answer counts from 1 (no symptoms or no difficulty) to 5 (most severe). Higher scores mean worse symptoms or more difficulty. The two scales are reported separately.
  • This page asks for every question to be answered so each average uses the full scale.

What the score means

There are no official severity bands; the BCTQ is most useful for tracking change over time.

  • Meaningful improvement: a 2020 systematic review pooled the minimal clinically important difference at about 1.05 points for the Symptom Severity Scale and 1.13 points for the Functional Status Scale (Mehta et al., 2020).
  • Measurement error: the same review pooled the minimal detectable change (90% confidence) at 0.72 points for symptoms and 0.79 points for function. Smaller changes may be normal variation.

Sources. Levine DW, Simmons BP, Koris MJ, Daltroy LH, Hohl GG, Fossel AH, Katz JN. A self-administered questionnaire for the assessment of severity of symptoms and functional status in carpal tunnel syndrome. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1993;75(11):1585-1592. Mehta SP, Weinstock-Zlotnick G, Akland KL, Hanna MM, Workman KJ. Using Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire in clinical practice: a systematic review of its measurement properties. J Hand Ther. 2020;33(4):493-506. ÖzyürekoฤŸlu T, McCabe SJ, Goldsmith LJ, LaJoie AS. The minimal clinically important difference of the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Symptom Severity Scale. J Hand Surg Am. 2006;31(5):733-738.

Permissions. The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire is © Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Shown here with the permission of Jeffrey N. Katz, MD, granted November 2026.

Clinically reviewed by Dr. Richard Holsman, PT, DPT, NCS. Last reviewed: November 14, 2026. Holsman Physical Therapy is not affiliated with these authors, organizations or journals, and they do not endorse this website.

Common Questions

What is the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire?

The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire, also called the Brigham and Women’s Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire, is a self-report form for carpal tunnel syndrome. It has an 11-question Symptom Severity Scale (pain, numbness, tingling, weakness and night symptoms) and an 8-question Functional Status Scale (tasks such as writing, buttoning and opening jars). It was published by Levine, Katz and colleagues in 1993.

How is it scored?

Each answer counts from 1 to 5. The Symptom Severity score is the average of the 11 symptom answers, and the Functional Status score is the average of the 8 activity answers. Both run from 1 to 5, and higher scores mean worse symptoms or more difficulty.

How much change matters?

A 2020 systematic review pooled the minimal clinically important difference at about 1.05 points for the Symptom Severity Scale and 1.13 points for the Functional Status Scale, and the minimal detectable change at 0.72 and 0.79 points.

Can this tell me if I have carpal tunnel syndrome?

No. It measures how severe your symptoms are and how much they affect daily tasks. Diagnosis needs an exam by a clinician, and sometimes nerve testing.

Is my information saved?

No. Everything runs in your web browser. Nothing is sent to us or stored.

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