Brief Description
The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was initially designed to facilitate the recognition and diagnosis of depressive disorders in primary care. It is now widely used both as a screening measure for depression and as a progress monitoring tool for depression treatment across a variety of treatment settings. Respondents rate how often they experience the depression symptoms listed (e.g., “little interest or pleasure in doing things”) on a scale from “Not at all” to “Nearly every day.”
Assessment Administration Type
Self-report
Number of questions
9
Age Range for Administration
18+
Recommended Frequency of Administration
Every two weeks
Summary of Scoring and Interpretations
The PHQ-9 contains 9 questions scored on a 4-point Likert scale with values from 0 (“Not at all”) to 3 (“Nearly every day”). A total score is calculated by summing the item responses and ranges from 0 to 27; higher scores are associated with higher levels of, or more severe, depression. See the table below for score interpretations.
Score | Interpretation |
0-4 | None to Minimal depression |
5-9 | Mild depression |
10-14 | Moderate depression |
15-19 | Moderately severe depression |
20-27 | Severe depression |
Blueprint Adjustments
This version of the PHQ-9 does not ask the question on functional impairment (i.e., “If you checked off any problems, how difficult have these problems made it for you to do your work, take care of things at home, or get along with other people?”). If you would like this question to be included, you can use the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 + Functional Impairment (PHQ-9 + Impairment) assessment on Blueprint. Note, this question is not included when scoring the PHQ-9 and is only used to help assess for impairment in functioning, which is a criteria for DSM-5 diagnoses.
Clinical Considerations
Estimated completion time: 2-5 minutes
A modified version of the PHQ-9 has been developed for adolescents ages 11-17, known as the PHQ-A. See PHQ-A here. There are also other abbreviated versions, including the PHQ-2 (first two items of PHQ-9) and PHQ-8 (removes Item 9, which asks about suicidal ideation). The PHQ-9 has also been translated into other languages, including Spanish, which can be found in the Blueprint Assessment library.
Citation
Link(s) to Relevant Articles/Further Resources:
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