Patient Health Questionnaire 9
PHQ-9
General
The PHQ-9 questionnaire, as part of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), includes nine questions about the occurrence of depressive symptoms in the past two weeks. Each question assesses one of the nine DSM-IV criteria for a diagnosis of major depression (MD). The PHQ-9 is recommended by the DSM-5 Working Group of the American Psychiatric Association as an instrument to measure the severity of major depression also according to the DSM-5 criteria. The four-point response scale ranges from 0 (not at all) to 3 (almost every day). Assessment of five or more symptoms with at least 2 (on more than half of the days) indicates major depression. Of these, one of the symptoms must be either disinterest or dejection. In addition to this categorical evaluation, the PHQ-9 can also be evaluated as a sum score. The interpretation of the sum score serves to determine the severity of the depressiveness and can thus be used in particular for course diagnostics as well as for the evaluation of the therapy effect. Sum values between 1-4 correspond to minimal depressive symptoms, values between 5-9 to mild depressive symptoms, values between 10-14 to moderate depressive symptoms, and values between 15 and 27 to severe depressive symptoms. The completion time is approximately three minutes.
Operation Area
The PHQ-9 was developed as a screening instrument for the diagnosis of depressive symptoms for routine use in the somatic-medical field, where it is also widely used today.
The instrument is made available in various languages on the following homepage:
https://www.phqscreeners.com/select-screener
Literature
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. (2001). The PHQ‐9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of general internal medicine, 16(9), 606-613.