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Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)

The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is a multipurpose instrument for screening, diagnosing, monitoring, and measuring the severity of depression. The tool guides therapists through the 9-item questionnaire, calculates the total score automatically, provides clinical interpretations, and flags potential suicide risk based on patient responses.

What you can do

  • Administer the standard PHQ-9 questionnaire directly within the platform.
  • Automatically calculate the patient's total score (0-27) in real-time.
  • View clinical interpretation based on the total score.
  • Receive immediate alerts for suicide risk flags (based on question 9).
  • Save results against a specific patient for longitudinal tracking.
  • Visualize progress over time with integrated charts.

Getting Started

To use the tool, navigate to Features > Tools > Patient Health Questionnaire.

Starting an Assessment

  1. Select a Patient: Search for and select the patient you want to assess. The PHQ-9 is always linked to a specific patient to enable history tracking.
  2. Click Begin Assessment.

Assessment Panel

The assessment panel allows you to record scores for each PHQ-9 question, review interpretations, and save the result.

Score Entry

  • Each of the 9 questions is presented with four answer options:
    • Not at all (0 points)
    • Several days (1 point)
    • More than half the days (2 points)
    • Nearly every day (3 points)
  • The Total Score updates automatically as answers are selected.
  • If the patient indicates any frequency for the 9th question ("Thoughts that you would be better off dead..."), a Suicide Risk Flag will be prominently displayed.
  • Click Save to store the assessment against the selected patient.

Interpretation

The interpretation panel shows the severity of depression based on the total score:

  • 0-4: Minimal depression
  • 5-9: Mild depression
  • 10-14: Moderate depression
  • 15-19: Moderately severe depression
  • 20-27: Severe depression

The relevant severity level for the current score is highlighted automatically.

Patient History

The tool displays a patient's historical PHQ-9 performance to help track treatment efficacy.

Progress Chart

  • A line chart visualizes the patient's total PHQ-9 scores over time.
  • Hover over data points to see specific dates and scores.

Past Assessments

  • A list of all previous assessments for the selected patient is shown.
  • Click on any entry to load that assessment and review the individual scores.
  • Historical records are read-only. Click New Assessment to start a fresh screening.