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July 22, 2025

Experienced, bothered by, or both: People differ in how they understand the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) items

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Authors

MPMargarita PanayiotouJRJosip RazumGEGudrun Eisele

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Overview

Research assesses interpretation of the Patient Health Questionnaire in different populations, indicating potential issues with how depression symptoms are evaluated.

Key Points

  • Majority of participants in both general and clinical samples misinterpret the PHQ instructions about depression symptoms.
  • Only 54.7% of MTurk and 15.5% of OPTIMA participants interpreted the PHQ correctly about being bothered by symptoms.
  • Data were collected from 503 general population and 349 clinical samples, highlighting the widespread misunderstanding of PHQ items.
  • Findings reveal concerns regarding the validity of the PHQ as an assessment tool for diagnosing depression.

Cite This Study

Panayiotou et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/689a061be6551bb0af8cd8ffhttps://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jcsq8_v1
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1When “Bothered by” Means “Often”: Evidence for Misinterpretation of the Patient Health Questionnaire2025
  2. 2When “Bothered by” Means “Often”: Evidence for Misinterpretation of the Patient Health Questionnaire2025
  3. 3An intensive longitudinal study on interpretation issues with the PHQ instructions2026
  4. 4Why are we still using the PHQ-9? A Historical Review and Psychometric Evaluation of Measurement Invariance2025 · 15 citations
  5. 5The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for detection of major depressive disorder in primary care: consequences of current thresholds in a crosssectional study2010 · 220 citations