If you are looking to find a free PHQ-9 depression screening tool online, then you have come to the right place.
What is PHQ 9?
The Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ 9) is a self-administered instrument used
for diagnosing various mental disorders. PHQ 9 is the subset of the PHQ instrument used to measure
the severity of depressive mental disorders. In other words, PHQ 9 is the depression module of PHQ
with 9 items, considered a short scale with accurate detection of depression and assessment of its severity, which
guides to further treatment decisions. This easy to use patient questionnaire has been validated as the best to use
in primary care for the early diagnosis of depression and the related mental disorders.
When it comes to mental health diagnosis or treatment, health practitioners' biggest issue is people's
hesitant mentality to open up. In a primary care set-up, it is difficult to make people talk about
their mental health issues without building trust. So there comes the need for self-administered tools like PHQ, PHQ
9, or PHQ 2, which helps to initial diagnosis and clinching to further
treatment .
Depression: The major mental health disorder
To understand PHQ 9 better, we share some useful information on Depression and related mental
disorders. Some emotions, like sadness , grief , and feeling
lost, are normal in every human. We all will come across these emotions from time to time, but they usually
go away within a few days. What happens when these emotions are so persistent and overwhelming. Depression is a
diagnosable condition classified as a mood disorder with symptoms like a deep-rooted
sadness , lack of interest, low energy, and loss of appetite .
Overlooked or untreated depression can cause serious damage to your health. Several studies proved that severe
depression can impact your central nervous system, and even it can affect the brain's physical structures. As of
2017, 264 million people around the world have depression, according to the World
Health Organisation . So diagnosing depression at the early stage and proceeding to treatment can lower the
life risk.
How PHQ 9 scoring helps you maintain good mental health
Today everybody around us is leading a life coping with one or other stress and mental problems; some pay
attention to it and try to handle it or seeks help from others. But some people miss noting what they
are going through deep inside , suffering to solve but not willing to know the
reason behind it. Depression is one such condition that seriously affects your inner harmony , lack
of interest in life, or loss of productivity . When you cannot sort out what you are going through
inside, you cannot solve what you are being affected by outside.
You may have little interest in doing things. Your interest in everything gradually decreased; this seems like
nothing in your opinion, but it is one of the most important symptoms of depressive disorders. A test instrument
like PHQ 9 comes to the rescue at this point; it assesses the major symptoms of depression. That
scoring will help you diagnose the severity of depression, and it also helps in the case of
measuring the response to treatment.
How PHQ 9 questionnaire works
The original PHQ instrument consists of 67 items based on PRIME-MD, which was
developed a decade ago to help clinical practitioners to diagnose common mental disorders. This PHQ 9 is the
depression module of PHQ; it consists of 9 questions based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental
Disorders-IV criteria. The 9 questions help identify the core symptoms of severe depression ; it is
measured against 4 standard responses. The 4 response categories are "not at all ", "several
days ", "more than half the days ", "nearly every day ”. The person taking
up a depression test through PHQ 9 will be assessed with how many times they underwent these 9 depression symptoms
in the past two weeks.
Check your depression level through PHQ 9
Questionnaire by Block Survey.
Calculating and Interpreting a PHQ 9 Score
The PHQ 9 score is calculated by assigning 0,1,2,3 for the respective responses starting from
“not at all” to “nearly every day”, then adding them together for all the 9 items. Usually, the PHQ 9 score ranges
from 0 - 27 . The PHQ 9 score's interpretation is based on the cut-of value; the scores are divided
into 4 cut points, like 5,10,15, and 20 .
Mild depression
Moderate depression
Moderately severe depression
Severe depression
PHQ 9: Reliability and Validity
PHQ 9 has been validated with a large no. of people in many countries around the
world. PHQ-9 scores > 10 had a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 88% for Major Depressive
Disorder (source: National Centre for Biotechnology Information ). The reliability and validity of the
tool have indicated it has sound psychometric properties .
Internal consistency
Criterion Validity
Test-retest reliability - PHQ 9 shows the same score for respondents even after a period of
time when the traits have not been changed.
Conclusion
Depression is one of the priority conditions covered by WHO’s mental health Gap Action Programme
(mhGAP). The program aims at helping people with mental and neurological problems in various countries
around the world. Globally, 15% of people will experience depression at some point in their
lifetime. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, and depression is the major reason for
suicidal thoughts. Depression should not be taken easily; it may affect your quality of life ,
physical health , and inner peace . Be aware of what you are going through, and
early treatment can reduce the damage caused to your inner harmony.
