What Happens During a Depression Screening?
Depression screenings are given in a variety of healthcare settings, such as a primary care doctor’s office, a psychiatric clinic, or a therapy office. Wherever you usually receive healthcare treatment is potentially the same place where you will also be screened for depression.
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“Depression screenings can be performed by your primary care provider, a licensed therapist, social worker, professional counselor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner,” says Ackerman.
The term “screening” may sound scary and a little intimidating, but a depression screening simply involves answering a set of questions, either on paper or out loud to a healthcare provider in a private setting.
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There are a few different evidence-based scales (or sets of questions) used to assess people for depressive symptoms, such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), or the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). While these questionnaires are available online, they’re meant to be administered and interpreted by a mental health professional.
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They’re all used to diagnose depression and to determine the severity of symptoms, so they can be used interchangeably depending on the preference of your healthcare provider. Each scale focuses on a few main themes.
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“The questions during a depression screening may vary but typically focus on a person’s mood, energy level, sleep patterns, appetite, focus, and thoughts of self-harm or suicide,” says Brent Nelson, MD , an adult interventional psychiatrist and chief innovation and optimization officer at PrairieCare in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The questions are often provided in a self-report format with a numerical scale to help identify the severity of each symptom, says Ackerman. Here’s is one example from the PHQ-9:
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“Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems?”
- Little interest or pleasure in doing things
It asks you to choose from the following answers:
- not at all (0)
- several days (1)
- more than half the days (2)
- nearly every day (3)
“The scores are added up at the end to determine if you have depression and how severe it is,” says Ackerman.