General Anxiety Disorder Assessment - 7 item (GAD-7)
What It Measures
The GAD-7 is seven questions about how often anxiety symptoms have bothered a person over the past two weeks. It covers feeling nervous or on edge, being unable to stop worrying, worrying about too many things, trouble relaxing, restlessness, irritability, and a sense that something awful might happen.
Each is rated from not at all to nearly every day, scored 0 to 3, for a total from 0 to 21. Cut-points of 5, 10, and 15 mark mild, moderate, and severe anxiety, and 10 or above is the usual threshold for further evaluation. Though built for generalized anxiety disorder, it also performs reasonably well as a screen for panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and PTSD.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: The GAD-7 is in the public domain. Like the rest of the PHQ Screeners family, it may be reproduced, translated, displayed, or distributed without permission.
Learn More: An eighth, unscored question follows the seven items, asking how difficult the symptoms have made work, home, and relationships. It doesn't enter the total but often matters more clinically than the number. Note also that the GAD-7 measures severity, not diagnosis — a score of 15 tells you symptoms are frequent, not that someone meets criteria for generalized anxiety disorder.
