Created in 2001 and now a very dominant self-report questionnaire. One of the mandatory measures in IAPT (or now “NHS talking therapies, for anxiety and depression programme”).
Details #
A nine item questionnaire which asks about the last two weeks (yes, it is two weeks). The nine items cover the DSM-IV (yes, DSM-IV not DSM-5) criteria for “major depressive disorder” (MDD) each answered on a four level frequency rating:
0 = Not at all
1 = Several days
2 = More than half the days
3 = Nearly every day.
That creates a score range from zero to 27. I haven’t seen any definitive guide about prorating missing items and it is probably often delivered now through web forms or apps that don’t allow non-response.
As you can see, it’s a very “illness model” and diagnosis framed measure. The PHQ-8 is a short version that omits the risk to self item and the PHQ-4 combines two items from the PHQ-9 with two from the GAD-7 to create an ultra-short measure for both depression and anxiety.
It is copyright to the drug company Pfizer Pfizer (https://www.phqscreeners.com/) and they make no charge for reproduction though the licence has never been made explicit as far as I know. With the GAD-7 it has become almost a de rigeur measure in mental health research, not very deservedly in my view!
Try also #
Chapters #
Mentioned in Chapter 4.
Online resources #
None current or likely I suspect.
Dates #
First created 7.ii.25, updated 26.iv.26.
