Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7
Screen for and monitor generalised anxiety; also performs reasonably as a general anxiety severity index.
Complete it
Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by the following problems?
Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge
Not being able to stop or control worrying
Worrying too much about different things
Trouble relaxing
Being so restless that it is hard to sit still
Becoming easily annoyed or irritable
Feeling afraid, as if something awful might happen
Psychometrics
At a cut-point of 10, sensitivity is roughly 0.89 and specificity roughly 0.82 for generalised anxiety disorder. Internal consistency is high (α ≈ 0.89–0.92).
Although developed for GAD, it detects panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and PTSD at moderate accuracy, which is why services often use it as a general anxiety index. That convenience comes at the cost of specificity.
Cautions and misuse
The GAD-7 does not distinguish which anxiety disorder is present, and it will not detect specific phobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder reliably. Use a disorder-specific measure once you know what you are treating, since the maintenance model — and therefore the treatment — differs sharply between them.
Sources
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097
measure