{"id":4703,"date":"2025-02-07T21:26:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T20:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/?post_type=docs&p=4703"},"modified":"2026-04-26T15:06:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:06:50","password":"","slug":"phq-9-patient-health-questionnaire-9-items","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/psyctc\/glossary2\/phq-9-patient-health-questionnaire-9-items\/","title":{"rendered":"PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 items)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t allow non-response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is copyright to the drug company Pfizer Pfizer (https:\/\/www.phqscreeners.com\/<\/a>) and they make no charge for reproduction though the licence has never been made explicit as far as I know.\u00a0 With the GAD-7 it has become almost a de rigeur <\/em>measure in mental health research, not very deservedly in my view!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try also<\/h4>\n\n\n\n