patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9)
Last reviewed 01/2018
The PHQ-9 is a depression assessment tool which scores each of the 9 DSM-IV criteria as '0' (not at all) to '3' (nearly every day):
- the PHQ-9 assessment tool been validated for use in Primary Care
- the questionnaire is designed to assess the patient's mood over the last
2 weeks:
- over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of
the following problems?
- 1) little interest or pleasure in doing things?
- 2) Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless?
- 3) trouble falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much?
- 4) Feeling tired or having little energy?
- 5) poor appetite or overeating?
- 6) feeling bad about yourself - or that you are a failure or
have let yourself or your family down?
- 7) trouble concentrating on things, such as reading the newspaper
or watching television?
- 8) moving or speaking so slowly that other people could have
noticed? Or the opposite - being so fidgety or restless that you have
been moving around a lot more than usual?
- 9) thoughts that you would be better off dead, or of hurting
yourself in some way?
- for each of the nine tested criteria there are four possible
answers:
- for each of the nine tested criteria there are four possible
answers:
- Not at all = 0 points
- Several days = 1 point
- More than half the days = 2 points
- Nearly every day = 3 points
- the maximum total score is 9x3 = 27 points and the patient's
score is thus a score out of 27 (e.g. 16 points = 16/27)
- 1) little interest or pleasure in doing things?
- over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of
the following problems?
- depression severity is graded based on the PHQ-9 score:
- 0-4 None
- 5-9 mild
- 10-14 moderate
- 15-19 moderately severe
- 20-27 severe