Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8)
Depression

Over the past 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems?

How often during the past 2 weeks were you bothered by...	Not at all	Several days	More than half the days	Nearly every day
1. Little interest or pleasure in doing things?	0	1	2	3
2. Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless?	0	1	2	3
3. Trouble falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much?	0	1	2	3
4. Feeling tired or having little energy?	0	1	2	3
5. Poor appetite or overeating?	0	1	2	3
6. Feeling bad about yourself, or that you are a failure, or have let yourself or your family down?	0	1	2	3
7. Trouble concentrating on things, such as reading the newspaper or watching television?	0	1	2	3
8. Moving or speaking so slowly that other people could have noticed. Or the opposite-being so fidgety or restless that you have been moving around a lot more than usual?	0	1	2	3

Scoring

If two consecutive numbers are circled, score the higher (more distress) number. If the numbers are not consecutive, do not score the item. Score is the sum of the 8 items. If more than 1 item missing, set the value of the scale to missing. A score of 10 or greater is considered an indication of current depression, 20 or more is severe major depression.

Characteristics

Tested on 1165 subjects with chronic conditions.

No. of items	Observed Range	Mean	Standard Deviation	Internal Consistency Reliability	Test-Retest Reliability
8	0-24	6.63	5.52	.86	NA

Source of Psychometric Data

U.S. National Chronic Disease Self-Management Study. Study described in Ory MG, Ahn S, Jiang L, et al. National study of chronic disease self-management: six month outcome findings. Journal of Aging and Health. 2013 [in press].

Comments

This is an adaptation of the PHQ-9 scale. Since this scale is self-administered in our studies, question #9, "How often during the past 2 weeks were you bothered by thoughts that you would be better off dead, or of hurting yourself in some way?", was deleted. This scale available in Spanish.

References

Kroenke K, Strine TW, Spritzer RL, Williams JB, Berry JT, Mokdad AH. The PHQ-8 as a measure of current depression in the general population. J Affect Disord. 2009; 114(1-3):163-73.

Razykov I, Ziegelstein RC, Whooley MA, Thombs BD. The PHQ-9 versus the PHQ-8 -- is item 9 useful for assessing suicide risk in coronary artery disease patients? Data from the Heart and Soul Study. J Psychosom Res. 2012; 73(3):163-168.

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