GAD-7

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) is a short tool for measuring generalized anxiety disorder.

The GAD-7 has a high diagnostic value with little processing effort and can be used for diagnosis, screening and measurement of the severity as well as for measuring the course of generalized anxiety disorder.

The GAD-7 was integrated into the PHQ-D in 2006 as a validated scale for measuring generalized anxiety disorder.

With regard to implementation and scoring, the GAD-7 scale is standardized and can be considered objective. The validity has so far been proven in both clinical and non-clinical settings.

The 7 items of GAD-7 ask about the most important diagnostic criteria of generalized anxiety disorder according to the DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. All items are answered for the previous two weeks and rated on a 4-point response scale.

The self-assessment questionnaire was developed for use in routine clinical practice and research.

Questionnaire

Screenshot of GAD-7 questionnaire for your patients.

Scoring

The GAD-7 is scored by forming the GAD-7 total value for all items.

The severity of the symptoms of anxiety is highlighted using a color code based on the total value shown in the table: None-minimal, mild, moderate or severe.

If applicable, it is also indicated whether further scoring of anxiety disorders is recommended (cutpoint of 10 or greater).

You will receive the following scoring of the GAD-7 questionnaire in the therapists area of PsyDix.org (screenshot: GAD-7 scoring) and it can also be downloaded, as a PDF file, for your documentation.

Preview of the GAD-7 scoring as PDF to save in your documentation:

Download: GAD-7 scoring as PDF file.

Interpretation

The total value is used to measure the severity of the anxiety and its course over time. The higher the total value, the more severe the anxiety.

The following scores are assigned to the response categories: 0 not at all, 1 several days, 2 more than half the days and 3 nearly every day.

© Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B.W., Kroenke, K., and colleagues; developed with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc.