General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)
What It Measures
The General Health Questionnaire screens for common mental health difficulties — the anxiety, low mood, and difficulty coping that show up in general medical settings rather than in psychiatric clinics. It deliberately does not ask about long-standing traits; it asks whether someone's current state is different from their usual one.
Two things are looked for: whether a person can still carry out their normal functions, and whether new and distressing symptoms have appeared. Items begin "Have you recently...", so a person who has always slept badly does not score for sleep. Four versions exist, from 12 to 60 items. The 28-item version is the one that yields subscale scores — somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depression — rather than a single total.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: Reproduction requires publisher permission.
Learn More: Choosing a version is a real decision. GHQ-12 is the two-minute screener for survey use. GHQ-28 is the only version yielding four subscale scores, each from seven items. GHQ-30 removes the somatic items, which matters when physical symptoms come from a medical condition rather than mood — it is also the most extensively validated version. GHQ-60 is the full original. GHQ-12, 30, and 60 yield a total score only.
