Introduction
There is a variety of rating scales for symptoms of depression, and the 9-item Person Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is one of them.
| The PHQ-9 article below is highly cited (more than 3600 citations as of May 2015). |
The advantages of the PHQ-9 are:
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It is a methodologically good scale (check the article)
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It takes very little time to fill in, only 9 short questions
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It can be used without paying a publisher/company, as is the case with the well known Beck depression inventory (BDI)
Like the CUDOS, the PHQ-9 can be used to indicate the severity of depression. The authors write:
PHQ-9 scores of 5, 10, 15, and 20 represented mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe depression, respectively.
p.606
| See also the CUDOS depression scale in the PsyToolkit survey library. |
Run the demo
Legal stuff
On the Kroenke et al. (2001, p.612) paper it states: "The development of the PHQ-9 was underwritten by an educational grant from Pfizer US Pharmaceuticals, New York, NY."
It seems that the PHQ-9 can be used freely for research, but as with any scale you use, you always need to acknowledge the creators.
The survey code for PsyToolkit
scale: frequency
- {score=0} not at all
- {score=1} several days
- {score=2} more than half the days
- {score=3} nearly every day
l: phq
t: scale frequency
o: width 50%
q: Over the <b>last 2 weeks</b>, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems?
- Little interest or pleasure in doing things
- Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless
- Trouble falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much
- Feeling tired or having little energy
- Poor appetite or overeating
- Feeling bad about yourself - or that you are a failure or have let yourself or your family down
- Trouble concentrating on things, such as reading the newspaper or watching television
- 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
- Thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself in some way
l: score
t: set
- sum $phq
l: feedback
t: info
q: Your score is {$score} on the Personal Health Questionnaire:<br>
You can use the table below to interprete this score.<br>
<ul>
<li>A score of 5-9 points: Mild depression
<li>A score of 10-14 points: Moderate depression
<li>A score of 15-19 points: Moderately severe depression
<li>A score of 20 points and higher: Severe depression
</ul><br>
This is simply a computer demonstration and does not replace a clinical diagnosis!<br>
If you are concerned about your mental health, make sure you seek help,<br>
for example from your doctor.<br>
If you are a student, you can contact your student services or mentor.<br>
Almost all schools and universities have a place where you can ask for help.<br>
References
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Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001). The PHQ-9 - Validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16, 606-613.