Psychiatric Scales

Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) and Brief Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)

The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) was developed as an alternate screening instrument to the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD). The clinician-administered PRIME-MD has limited clinical usefulness because of its administration time. The self-administered PHQ has diagnostic validity comparable to PRIME-MD. The PHQ contains the mood, anxiety, alcohol, eating, and somatoform modules covered in PRIME-MD.

The Brief Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a 9-question version of the PHQ: 8 questions are scored on scale and 1 question on functional impairment. This screening instrument identifies depression and panic disorder and assesses stress and functionality, including gender-specific sources of stress.

Both the PHQ and the PHQ-9 were developed by Robert L. Spitzer, MD, and colleagues, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc.

• Download the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)

• Download the Brief Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)

• Download the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ and PHQ-9) Instructions

Supporting Articles

• Validy and Utility of a Self-Report Version of PRIME-MD: The PHQ Primary Care Study
  By Robert L. Spitzer, MD, et al. JAMA. 1999;282:1737-1744.
  This study determines if the self-administered PRIME-MD PHQ has validity and utility for diagnosing mental disorders in primary care.

Supporting Video

Video Courtesy of The Doctor's Channel

A large number of psychiatric tests, scales, and forms have been created over the years to help in diagnosing mental illness and assisting in treatment and follow-up. We've put many of the clinical scales online here, hoping healthcare professionals—whether in specialty practices, primary-care settings, or emergency services—will find this format convenient. Since most of the tools are designed for repeated use over time, they will provide not only a longitudinal view but also document the medical record.

In addition to the psychiatric clinical scales themselves, you will find instructions on how to administer and score the scales.

These scales have demonstrated high levels of accuracy and validity and the results can give important clues to possible mental disorders that warrant follow up. However, please remember that they depend on the skills of the clinicians administering them and the accuracy of the information provided by the patients.

Jay M. Pomerantz, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School, Boston