Depression Test: Get an Instant Severity Result Based on the PHQ-9

Screening questions land differently when you know how many other people are answering them the same way. Our depression statistics page collects the current numbers on depression in the United States, each one with its source and the year it was measured next to it.

None of those figures say anything about your own result. They are context for it, and a reminder that whatever the score, this is common ground rather than rare territory.

In the largest study of its kind, a 2019 individual participant data meta-analysis pooled results from 58 studies and more than 17,000 participants and compared the PHQ-9 against semistructured diagnostic interviews, the reference standard clinicians use to confirm major depression. At the standard cutoff of 10, the PHQ-9 correctly identified depression in about 88% of people who had it (sensitivity 0.88) and correctly ruled it out in about 85% of people who did not (specificity 0.85). That balance is why a cutoff of 10 is the threshold this test and most primary care clinics use.

No self-report questionnaire is perfect. A score of 10 or higher means depression is likely, not certain, and a lower score does not rule it out if your symptoms genuinely fit the picture described above. That is the gap an actual conversation with a clinician is meant to close, not something a nine-item questionnaire can replace on its own.

If your low mood shows up tangled together with anxiety or a general sense of being stretched too thin, the DASS-21 Depression, Anxiety & Stress Test screens all three at once and can help you see which one is driving the others. The PHQ-9 used here stays narrowly focused on the nine core depression symptoms, which makes it the better pick when you specifically want a severity read on depression rather than a broader mood picture. The Anxiety Test is worth taking alongside this one if anxious thoughts or physical tension show up often, since depression and anxiety commonly occur together and each carries its own treatment considerations. Loss of drive without low mood is apathy rather than depression, and the Apathy Test (Apathy Test: Loss of Motivation and Interest) is built to separate the two.

Whichever screening fits, the Behavioral Activation Planner, built around a core piece of cognitive behavioral therapy that means deliberately scheduling activities that used to bring some enjoyment or a sense of accomplishment, is one of the more evidence-backed ways to start moving a low mood even before you see anyone. When you are ready for that conversation, the Psychology.com therapist directory lets you search for clinicians who work with depression, free and with no account needed. A flat, untroubled indifference without sadness or self-criticism is more typical of apathy than of depression, and our apathy test looks at that pattern on its own. If your low periods have ever alternated with stretches of unusual energy or reduced need for sleep, the bipolar disorder test screens for that pattern. Low mood and isolation often travel together, and the loneliness test can show how much disconnection is part of the picture. If your low mood has been a years-long baseline rather than a recent, sharper shift, the PDD test screens for that longer-running pattern. For a same-sitting read on low mood, anxiety, and stress together, the DASS test scores all three separately. If you are screening someone aged 60 or older, the geriatric depression scale was built and validated for that age group. If loss of interest or pleasure is the symptom that stands out most, the anhedonia test looks at where enjoyment has changed across four areas of life. If you have also had stretches of unusually high energy or reduced need for sleep between the lows, the hypomania test screens for lifetime manic and hypomanic episodes. If your symptoms began during pregnancy or after birth, the postpartum depression test uses the EPDS, which is built for that period. If you want to see positive feelings scored alongside the difficult ones rather than symptoms alone, the mood test keeps the two separate.

If you are looking for a depression test name, the one most clinics use is the PHQ-9, the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire developed and validated by Kroenke, Spitzer, and Williams in 2001. It asks how often nine core symptoms have affected you over the past two weeks, scored from 0 to 27, with 10 or higher the usual point where likely depression is flagged. This page reproduces those nine items, lightly adapted for readability. If you want a depression and anxiety test in one, the DASS-21 on Psychology.com screens depression, anxiety, and stress together. Whichever you take, the result is a screening for adults, not a diagnosis; only a licensed clinician can assess depression.