Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)

Full name of scale

Patient Health Questionnaire-9

Languages

English, French, Korean

French version reference

Arthurs, E., Steele, R. J., Hudson, M., Baron, M., Thombs, B. D., & Group, (CSRG) Canadian Scleroderma Research. (2012). Are Scores on English and French Versions of the PHQ-9 Comparable? An Assessment of Differential Item Functioning. PLOS ONE, 7(12), e52028. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052028

Rater

Patient-rated

Utility

Research and clinical settings (explicitly mentioned)

This measure assesses the severity of depression.

Several versions exist:

• PHQ-9 is the depression module from the full PHQ
• PHQ-8: this may be an acceptable alternative to the
• PHQ-9: it has all the items available in PHQ-9 except the last one: ““thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself in some way”. In certain research studies with population who meet the below criteria: (1) the risk of suicidality is felt to be extremely low or negligible; (2) depression is being assessed as a secondary outcome in studies of other medical conditions; and/or (3) data is being gathered in a self-administered fashion rather than by direct interview, such that further probing about positive responses to item nine is not feasible.
• PHQ-2: This measure screens for depression, and not the depression severity.

Time to complete

Approximately 3 minutes

Cost/license

Free to use