{"id":6575,"date":"2020-11-16T18:05:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T18:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/?p=6575"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:18:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:18:53","slug":"generalized-anxiety-gad-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/generalized-anxiety-gad-7\/","title":{"rendered":"GAD-7 | Generalized Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7\u00a0(GAD-7)<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Recom<\/em>mended\u00a0frequency: Every 2 we<\/em>eks
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Download Sample<\/a><\/p>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) instrument is used to measure and monitor the severity of\u00a0generalized anxiety disorders. The scale was published in 2006 by Robert L. Spitzer,\u00a0Kurt Kroenke, Janet B. W. Williams, and colleagues, and was designed to be a brief and easy to complete 7-item scale for measuring generalized anxiety, based on criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV). Evidence has shown that the GAD-7 has effective sensitivity and specificity for screening for other anxiety disorders, such as Panic, Social Anxiety and Posttraumatic Stress Disorders. The measure was originally developed to be used with adults (18+), however it has also been validated for use with adolescents (14-17) with generalized anxiety, as GAD-7 scores can support the assessment of anxiety symptoms and help differentiate between mild and moderate anxiety in youth (Mossman et al., 2018).<\/p>\n

About the GAD-7<\/h2>\n

Despite only recently being developed in 2006, the GAD-7 is one of the most commonly utilized measures for anxiety. There are many other validated measures<\/a> that exist to identify and monitor anxiety, including the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Covi Anxiety Scale, Clinical Anxiety Scale (CAS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV (GAD-Q-IV), and World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview Short-Form (CIDI-SF), among others.<\/p>\n

The GAD-7 was developed based on the 9 symptom criteria for generalized anxiety in the DSM-IV in addition to to 9 questions.<\/p>\n

To create the measure<\/a>, the authors identified an initial list of potential items that could compose the scale. They started with 9 items that each corresponded to symptom criteria for generalized anxiety disorders within the DSM-IV, plus 4 additional items based on a fulsome review of other existing anxiety scales. Their goal was to identify the items that were most effective at measuring anxiety symptoms and shorten the length of the measure, in order to reduce assessment burden on patients and increase completion rates, while ensuring strong reliability and procedural, construct, and diagnostic criterion validity.<\/p>\n

In order to do so, they completed a criterion-standard study that compared GAD self-report scale diagnoses to independent diagnoses made by mental health professionals, as well as functional status measures, disability days, and health care use. There were two phases to this project<\/a>, the first being to identify the scale items and determine cut off scores, and the second focused on testing its reliability. The final 7 items were chosen based on them having the highest correlation with the total 13-item scale score (Spitzer et al., 2006).<\/p>\n

When scoring the GAD-7, the authors recommend using a cut off score of 10 which ensures a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 82% for generalized anxiety disorders\u2014 meaning a score of 10 or higher on the GAD-7 is a good indication of potential Generalized Anxiety Disorder diagnosis (Spitzer et al., 2006). The measure can also assist with detecting three other common anxiety disorders, including Panic Disorder (sensitivity 74%, specificity 81%), Social Anxiety Disorder (sensitivity 72%, specificity 80%), and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (sensitivity 66%, specificity 81%) (Spitzer et al., 2006).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7\u00a0(GAD-7) Recommended\u00a0frequency: Every 2 weeks Download Sample Summary The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) instrument is used to measure and monitor the severity of\u00a0generalized anxiety disorders. The scale was published in 2006 by Robert L. Spitzer,\u00a0Kurt Kroenke, Janet B. W. Williams, and colleagues, and was designed to be a brief and easy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessment-guide"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}