The PHQ-9 is a 9 item screening measure to identify probable major depressive disorder (MDD) among adult primary care patients (Bombardier et al. 2004).

Number of items: 9

Procedure/Administration: Self report pen/paper or interview format. Items are rated in terms of how persistent the symptoms have been in the past 2 weeks: 0 (not at all), 1 (several days), 2 (more than half of the days), 3 (nearly every day).

How scored: Sum the scores from each item

Interpretability: Total scores range from 0 to 27. Higher scores indicate increased severity of depression. Scores > 20 are indicative of probably major depressive disorder.

Acceptability: N/a

Languages: English and Spanish versions available

Usability: N/a

Time to administer: Takes 5 minutes to complete and items are easy to understand.

Time to score: N/a

Training required: N/a

Availability: Measure available online in PDF format Copyright © Pfizer Inc. after agreeing to several conditions including use for research, in clinical programs or physician education (http://www.pfizer.com/pfizer/phq-9/index.jsp) or http://www.depression-primarycare.org/clinicians/toolkits/materials/form... (includes scoring guide).

Equipment required: N/a

Summary:

• Can be used as a tool to screen for major depression.
• Corresponds with the DSM-IV criteria.

Psychometric Summary:

Note: TR= Test re-test; IC= Internal Consistency; Inter-O=Inter-observer; Intra-O=Intra-observer; SS=Sensitivity/Specificity; N/a= No information

Red light= A single study involving SCI subjects which has less than adequate findings of reliability, validity, and/or responsiveness.

Yellow light= A single study involving subjects with SCI which has adequate to excellent findings of reliability, validity, and/or responsiveness.

Green light= At least 2 studies involving subjects with SCI which have adequate to excellent findings of reliability, validity, and/or responsiveness.

References

• Bombardier CH, Richards JS, Krause J, Tulsky D, Tate D. Symptoms of Major Depression in People With Spinal Cord Injury: Implications for Screening. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2004;85:1749-1756.
• Graves DE and Bombordier CH. Improving the efficiency of screening for major depression in people with spinal cord injury. J Spinal Cord Med. 2008; 31(2): 177-84.
• Williams RT, Heinemann AW, Bode RK, Wilson CS, Fann JR, Tate DG. Improving measurement properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 with Rating Scale analyses. Rehabilitation Psychology 2009; 54(2): 198-203.