PROMIS Depression

PROMIS Depression is a standardized self-report instrument developed under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) PROMIS initiative to evaluate negative mood (sadness, guilt), views of self (self-criticism, worthlessness), social cognition (loneliness, interpersonal alienation), and decreased positive affect and engagement (loss of interest, meaning, and purpose). Somatic symptoms such as appetite and sleep changes are deliberately excluded, removing their effect in patients with physical conditions.

Items are administered as a fixed short form or a computer adaptive test (CAT) with a seven-day recall window and scored on a population-normed T-score metric centered at 50, where higher scores indicate greater symptom burden. Parallel adult, pediatric self-report, and parent-proxy versions are available. The domain does not substitute for a suicide risk screen.

PROMIS Global Health-10 is officially listed in the HealthMeasures library as the PROMIS Short Form v1.0 – Depression 4a (versions 4b, 6a, and 8a are also available)

Learn More: Read our overview on PROMIS Measures for Clinicians.

Licensing Notes: PROMIS® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. PROMIS instruments are publicly available through HealthMeasures without licensing or royalty fees for individual clinical and educational use. However, integrating these tools into an electronic platform or EHR requires HealthMeasures Electronic Administration Permission (HEAP) to ensure digital formatting and scoring validity.