Journal article

Equivalency of the diagnostic accuracy of the PHQ-8 and PHQ-9: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis.

Yin Wu, Brooke Levis, Kira E Riehm, Nazanin Saadat, Alexander W Levis, Marleine Azar, Danielle B Rice, Jill Boruff, Pim Cuijpers, Simon Gilbody, John PA Ioannidis, Lorie A Kloda, Dean McMillan, Scott B Patten, Ian Shrier, Roy C Ziegelstein, Dickens H Akena, Bruce Arroll, Liat Ayalon, Hamid R Baradaran Show all

Psychological Medicine | Cambridge University Press (CUP) | Published : 2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Item 9 of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) queries about thoughts of death and self-harm, but not suicidality. Although it is sometimes used to assess suicide risk, most positive responses are not associated with suicidality. The PHQ-8, which omits Item 9, is thus increasingly used in research. We assessed equivalency of total score correlations and the diagnostic accuracy to detect major depression of the PHQ-8 and PHQ-9. METHODS: We conducted an individual patient data meta-analysis. We fit bivariate random-effects models to assess diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS: 16 742 participants (2097 major depression cases) from 54 studies were included. The correlation between PHQ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers