What do the PHQ-9, the GAD-7 and their variants miss in assessing young people presenting to youth mental health services?

Abstract

Brief self-report measures offer significant benefits in youth mental health services by providing quick, efficient, and accessible assessment of mental health status. In this study, we describe the psychometric features of the Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9), the Generalised Anxiety Disorder–7 (GAD-7) and their shorter variants in 1063 young people at their first appointment to headspace youth primary care mental health services. Specific aims were to: (i) document the internal consistency, dimensionality, and measurement invariance for sex and age (12–14, 15–17, 18–21, 22–25 years) for the PHQ-9 and GAD-7; (ii) compare the full and shorter variants of the measures; and (iii) determi..