Depression screener
The PHQ-9, free and scored instantly
9 questions, about 2 minutes. Your answers stay in your browser — we only see them if you ask us to.
Take the PHQ-9
The PHQ-9 is the depression screener most clinics use, including ours. It takes about two minutes and your answers stay on your device unless you choose to send them.
Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems?
If you are thinking about harming yourself
You answered that you have had thoughts of being better off dead, or of hurting yourself. Please talk to someone now — it is free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911. This website is not monitored for emergencies.
Your result
0 / 27
This is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. It cannot tell you what you have. Only a conversation with a clinician can do that — and a low score does not mean your experience is not real or not worth help.
Would you like us to look at this with you?
We can send your answers to our clinical team and call you back — usually within one business day. Entirely optional; your result is yours either way.
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Kroenke, Spitzer & Williams (2001). Developed by Drs Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams and Kurt Kroenke, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc. No permission required to reproduce, translate, display or distribute.
If you need help right now, you do not have to finish this first. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential and open 24 hours — call or text988. In immediate danger, call 911.
What the PHQ-9 measures
The PHQ-9 is the depression screener most clinics use, including ours. It takes about two minutes and your answers stay on your device unless you choose to send them.
It is scored out of 27. Higher scores mean more of the experiences it asks about, over the period the questions cover — nothing more than that. The bands below are the published ones, and they describe a range, not a person.
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | Minimal | Your answers suggest few or no depression symptoms over the past fortnight. |
| 5–9 | Mild | Your answers suggest mild symptoms. Many people in this range benefit from talking to someone, especially if it has been going on a while. |
| 10–14 | Moderate | Your answers suggest moderate symptoms. This is the range where treatment usually helps most, and where waiting rarely does. |
| 15–19 | Moderately severe | Your answers suggest moderately severe symptoms. We would encourage you to speak to a clinician soon. |
| 20–27 | Severe | Your answers suggest severe symptoms. Please speak to a clinician — this is treatable, and you do not have to manage it alone. |
What it cannot do
A screener cannot diagnose you. It asks a fixed set of questions and adds up the answers; it knows nothing about your history, your circumstances, or anything you were not asked. Two people with the same score can need very different things — and someone with a low score can still be struggling in a way that deserves help. If your result worries you, or if it does not match how you actually feel, that mismatch is worth a conversation on its own.
Where this instrument comes from
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Kroenke, Spitzer & Williams (2001). Developed by Drs Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams and Kurt Kroenke, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc.
We publish it here because it is free to do so: no permission required to reproduce, translate, display or distribute. We have not reworded any item — a screener is validated as a specific set of words with a specific response scale, and changing them would make the scores above meaningless.
Wondering what your result actually means?
A clinician can tell you in one conversation what a score never will. Request an appointment online at any time, or call during office hours.
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