Depression and Anxiety Tests

Am I depressed, do I have anxiety, or both?

For many of us, experiencing the symptoms associated with depression or anxiety will mean a trip to the GP. But how will the doctor know how severe your depression or anxiety is? Some GPs will ask you to fill in the questionnaires listed below to give them an idea of what symptoms you are experiencing and how severe the problem is for you. The first is called the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9 for short) and is used to assess depression. The second is the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD7) and is used as a screening tool for anxiety. By adding up your score you can see how much your depression or anxiety is affecting you daily and whether you are experiencing depression, anxiety or both.

 

P A T I E N T   H E A L T H   Q U E S T I O N N A I R E - 9   (P H Q - 9)

 

Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems?	Not at all	Several days	More than half the days	Nearly every day
	0	1	2	3
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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

GENERALISED ANXIETY DISORDER ASSESSMENT 7 (GAD-7)

Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems?	Not at all	Several days	More than half the days	Nearly every day
	0	1	2	3
Feeling nervous, anxious or on edge
Not being able to stop or control worrying
Worrying too much about different things
Trouble relaxing
Being so restless that it is hard to sit still
Becoming easily annoyed or irritable
Feeling afraid as if something awful might happen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do my scores mean?

Add up your scores for both questionnaires, and compare your results to the information below:

What next, if you have Depression or Anxiety?

Although it is possible to have 'anxiety' or 'depression' to varying degrees (psychiatrists can help formally classify whether you meet a condition based on certain criteria), it can be more helpful to focus on treatment rather than to dwell on the diagnostic label. To read more about depression and working through it, please see our 'Depression Help Guide'. For further information about anxiety and treatment, see this 'Anxiety Counselling' page.

Tests: Developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, Kurt Kroenke and colleagues, with grant from Pfizer Inc.  No permission required to reproduce, translate, display or distribute.

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