6–10: mild. 11–15: moderate. 16–20: severe. 21–27: very severe.
The possible range is 0-27. Use the table below to interpret the PHQ-9 score. Warrants treatment for depression, using antidepressant, psychotherapy and/or a combination of treatment.
Guide for Interpreting PHQ-9 Scores
10 - 14 Moderate Use clinical judgment about treatment, based on patient's duration of symptoms and functional impairment. 15 - 19 Moderately severe Treat using antidepressants, psychotherapy or a combination of treatment.
Depression Severity: 0-4 none, 5-9 mild, 10-14 moderate, 15-19 moderately severe, 20-27 severe. Validity has been assessed against an independent structured mental health professional (MHP) interview. PHQ-9 score ≥10 had a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 88% for major depression.
None or minimal depression (0–6), Mild depression (7–13), Moderate depression (14–19), Severe depression (19–30).
6–10: mild. 11–15: moderate. 16–20: severe. 21–27: very severe.
10-14: This is considered moderate depression. Similar to mild depression, healthcare providers can use their clinical judgment and knowledge of the patient to determine a course of treatment. 15-19: This is considered moderately severe depression.
Depression ranges in seriousness from mild, temporary episodes of sadness to severe, persistent depression. Clinical depression is the more-severe form of depression, also known as major depression or major depressive disorder.
Total scores of 5, 10, 15, and 20 represent cutpoints for mild, moderate, moderately severe and severe depression, respectively.
Score interpretation
The total score ranges from 0–63. The following guidelines are recommended for the interpretation of scores: 0–9, normal or no anxiety; 10–18, mild to moderate anxiety; 19–29, moderate to severe anxiety; and 30–63, severe anxiety.
Regarding severity, PHQ-9 comprises five categories, where a cut-off point of 0–4 indicates no depressive symptoms, 5–9 mild depressive symptoms, 10–14 moderate depressive symptoms, 15–19 moderately-severe depressive symptoms, and 20–27 severe depressive symptoms [25].
Scores are rated as normal (0-2), mild (3-5), moderate (6-8), and severe (9-12). Total score ≥3 for first 2 questions suggests anxiety. Total score ≥3 for last 2 questions suggests depression.
Scores of 0-4 are considered normal, depending on age, education, and complaints; 5-8 indicate mild depression; 9-11 indicate moderate depression; and 12-15 indicate severe depression.
Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D)
The scale is administered by a health care professionals and contains 21 items, but is scored based on the first 17 items, which are measured either on 5-point or 3-point scales. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete and score.
MHQ score levels are (from left to right) clinical (score range: −100 to −51), at-risk (−50 to −1), enduring (0-50), managing (51-100), succeeding (101-150), and thriving (151-200). MHQ: Mental Health Quotient.
They'll ask about whether you've had thoughts of suicide or self-harm. A GP may use a questionnaire to assess your symptoms. Try to be as open and honest as you can be with your answers. Describing your symptoms and how they're affecting you will help the GP determine whether you have depression and how severe it is.
A GAF score is a 0-100 scale mental health clinicians use to evaluate how well a person can function in society. A GAF score of 91-100 is normal, while lower scores indicate psychosocial problems that make life difficult for the person under evaluation.
Important: A higher PROMIS T-score represents more of the concept being measured. For negatively-worded concepts like depression, a T-score of 60 is one SD worse than average. By comparison, a depression T-score of 40 is one SD better than average.
Score of 17-20: Borderline clinical depression. Score of 21-30: Moderate depression. Score of 31-40: Severe depression. Score of 40+ Extreme depression.
Clinical depression is a chronic condition, but it usually occurs in episodes, which can last several weeks or months. You'll likely have more than one episode in your lifetime. This is different from persistent depressive disorder, which is mild or moderate depression that lasts for at least two years.
It is diagnosed when an individual has a persistently low or depressed mood, anhedonia or decreased interest in pleasurable activities, feelings of guilt or worthlessness, lack of energy, poor concentration, appetite changes, psychomotor retardation or agitation, sleep disturbances, or suicidal thoughts.
Depression is a disorder of the brain. It is a serious mental illness that is more than just a feeling of being "down in the dumps" or "blue" for a few days. For more than 20 million people in the United States who have depression, the feelings persist and can interfere with everyday life.
Another school of thought is that depression and intelligence are related, but depression negatively impacts cognitive function and causes a low IQ score on the test. Researchers hypothesize that depression can cause performance challenges, lack of focus, distress, or other possible mediators during IQ testing.
The GAD-7 scores were also represented with clinical categorizations of anxiety levels as follows: GAD-7 score of 0–4 (none), 5–9 (mild), 10–14 (moderate), and 15–21 (severe). 30.
Within the clinical range we have identified the score of 11 as the lower boundary of the 'mild' level, 15 for the 'moderate' level, and 20 for the 'moderate-to-severe' level. A score of 25 or over marks the 'severe' level.