{"id":6467,"date":"2023-05-09T15:22:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T15:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/?p=6467"},"modified":"2026-05-21T17:21:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:21:46","slug":"phq-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/phq-9\/","title":{"rendered":"PHQ-9 | Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"wysiwyg-text-align-center\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9)<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p class=\"wysiwyg-text-align-center\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Recommended\u00a0frequency: Every 2 weeks<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/PHQ-9Assessment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download Sample<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span class=\"wysiwyg-underline\">Summary<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (\u201cPHQ-9\u201d) is a multi-purpose measure used to identify and monitor depression severity. It is a brief, 9-item version of the original PHQ assessment, which measures a variety of mental health challenges in addition to depression, such as anxiety, panic disorder, sleep disorders, and more. The <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1046\/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PHQ-9<\/a> was co-created by Drs.\u00a0Robert L. Spitzer, Janet W.B. Williams and Kurt Kroenke in 1999.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About the PHQ-9<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The PHQ-9 combines depression diagnostic criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) with other leading major depressive symptoms. The key diagnostic symptom criteria adapted from the DSM-IV includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Two typical signs of\u00a0depression: anhedonia (referring to the inability or reduced ability to experience pleasure) and depressed mood;<\/li>\n<li>Cognitions (e.g. guilt\/worthlessness and suicidality\/thoughts of death); and<\/li>\n<li>Physical symptoms (e.g. change in appetite, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, feeling tired\/slowed down or restless).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 25px;\">Each of the 9 questions rate the frequency of the symptoms, which factors into the severity index.<\/p>\n<p>Clinicians and clinical leaders will often ask about\u00a0the differences between the PHQ-9 and other depression scales. In comparison to the other commonly used depression scales (BDI, HAD-D, QIDS), the\u00a0confidence intervals are quite similar, meaning they have all demonstrated reliability, validity, and are responsive to change. The PHQ-9 has a particularly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apa.org\/pi\/about\/publications\/caregivers\/practice-settings\/assessment\/tools\/patient-health\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">high validity<\/a> score, such that when PHQ-9 scores were above 10, the measure was shown to have a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 88% for Major Depressive Disorder\u2014meaning that a score above 10 was a good indication that a diagnosis of depression would occur. Each of the major depression scales have their differences, although the PHQ-9 and BDI-II in particular tend to measure relatively equal levels of severity and track symptom change in a similar manner. The PHQ-9 is often preferred to other comparable assessments due to its brevity, which makes it easy to integrate into research or practice, and helps promote high completion rates.<\/p>\n<p>Greenspace offers two versions of the PHQ-9 assessment to support different clinical and organizational preferences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>PHQ-9 (standard): Includes the nine core symptom items used to calculate the final PHQ-9 score and severity classification.<\/li>\n<li>PHQ-9 WF (With Functioning): Includes the same nine symptom items, along with Question 10 (\u201cIf you checked off any problems, how difficult have these problems made it for you to do your work, take care of things at home, or get along with other people?\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 25px;\">Question 10 is commonly referred to as the functional impairment question and is intended to provide additional clinical context regarding how symptoms may affect day-to-day functioning. While this question may offer valuable insight, it is not included in the final PHQ-9 score calculation and does not affect severity classification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) Recommended\u00a0frequency: Every 2 weeks Download Sample Summary The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (\u201cPHQ-9\u201d) is a multi-purpose measure used to identify and monitor depression severity. It is a brief, 9-item version of the original PHQ assessment, which measures a variety of mental health challenges in addition to depression, such as anxiety, [&hellip;]<\/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":[59,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessment-guide","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenspacehealth.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}