PHQ-9

The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) is a screening instrument for diagnosing depression, consisting of the depression module of the PHQ It was developed for routine use in the somatic-medical field and can be used to diagnose the course and assess any therapeutic effects. With each question, the PHQ-9 records one of the nine DSM-IV criteria for the diagnosis of "major depression".

The American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 working group recommends the PHQ-9 as a tool for measuring the severity of major depression.

Questionnaire

Screenshot of PHQ-9 questionnaire for your patients.

Scoring

The PHQ-9 can be evaluated both numerically and descriptively.

The severity of depression is highlighted in color using the total value in a table: None-minimal, Mild, Moderate, Moderately Severe or Severe.

In addition, it is indicated whether Major Depressive Syndrome or Other Depressive Syndrome are present.

You will receive the following scoring of the PHQ-9 questionnaire in the therapists area of PsyDix.org (screenshot: PHQ-9 scoring) and it can be also downloaded, as a PDF file, for your documentation.

Preview of the PHQ-9 scoring as PDF to save in your documentation:

Download: PHQ-9 scoring as PDF file.

Interpretation

The interpretation of the total value is used to determine the severity of the depression.

Since the PHQ-9 alone cannot collect all the information necessary for a complete psychodiagnostics, the diagnosis is not carried out at the disorder level but only at the syndrome level.

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