The Patient Health Questionnaire-2 Validity of a Two-Item Dpression Screener

BACKGROUND. A number of selfadministered questionnaires are available for assessing depression severity, including the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire depres­ sion module (PHQ-9). Because even briefer measures might be desirable for use in busy clinical settings or as part of comprehensive health questionnaires, we evaluated a 2-item version of the PHQ depression module, the PHQ-2. METHODS. The PHQ-2 inquires about the frequency of depressed mood and anhedonia over the past 2 weeks, scoring each as 0 (“not at all”) to 3 (“nearly every day”). The PHQ-2 was completed by 6000 patients in 8 primary care clinics and 7 obstetrics–gynecology clinics. Construct validity was assessed using the 20­ item Short-Form General Health Survey, selfreported sick days and clinic visits, and symptom-related difficulty. Criterion validity was assessed against an independent struc-