What your PHQ-8 score means

The PHQ-8 adds eight answers about depression symptoms during the past two weeks into a total from 0 to 24. It is a screening score, not a diagnosis. It also omits the PHQ-9 question about death or self-harm, so the total provides no suicide or self-harm answer.

Omission is missing information.

The quick answer

Survey Doctor displays five ranges:

These labels describe totals. They do not confirm depression, rule it out, or select therapy, medication, or another treatment.

An adult population PHQ-8 study used 10 or more as a screening threshold. That boundary can prompt a fuller assessment. It is not proof of major depression, and a score below 10 does not make troubling symptoms unimportant.

Scores need context.

How the total is built

Each question asks how often a symptom occurred: not at all, on several days, on more than half the days, or nearly every day. The answers contribute 0, 1, 2, or 3 points. Survey Doctor requires all eight answers and adds them without proration.

The questions cover interest, mood, sleep, energy, appetite, self-worth, concentration, and changes in movement or restlessness. The final area can include moving or speaking unusually slowly, or the opposite pattern of visible fidgeting and restlessness.

The score shows reported symptom frequency. It does not explain why symptoms occurred, show their effect on daily life, or establish every requirement for a diagnosis.

PHQ-8 and PHQ-9 are not interchangeable

The PHQ-9 score guide covers a nine-question form with a 0-to-27 total. Its ninth question asks about thoughts of death or self-harm. The PHQ-8 leaves that question out and ends at 24.

Omitting the question is not a safety feature. It means the PHQ-8 cannot show how someone would have answered it. A clinical, workplace, research, or digital program still needs a direct way to receive and respond to urgent safety concerns.

If you are thinking about suicide or self-harm, seek support based on those thoughts. Do not wait for a questionnaire result. Your PHQ-8 total does not capture them.

Ask about safety directly.

If you need help now. In the US, Call 988 or text 988. Call 911 if you are in immediate danger. Outside the US, contact your local emergency number or find support in your country.

What a manually entered score leaves unknown

Survey Doctor can store a whole-number PHQ-8 total from 0 to 24 without collecting the eight answers. That score-only record cannot prove which symptoms were reported, whether the full form was completed, or how daily life was affected.

It also contains no item-level safety information. Even a native PHQ-8 does not ask the PHQ-9 self-harm question, and manual entry cannot add an answer that the form never collected.

Physical symptoms can overlap

Sleep, energy, appetite, and movement can change for many reasons. The PHQ-8 counts their frequency within a depression screen, but it cannot assign a cause.

The PHQ-15 score guide covers a separate four-week measure of how bothersome selected physical symptoms felt. Some topics overlap, but the timeframes, questions, and totals differ. Do not add or convert the scores.

Keep the forms separate.

Using scores over time

Repeated PHQ-8 totals can show whether the answers changed. Compare the same form, timeframe, and completion rule.

A PHQ-8 total should not be silently substituted for a PHQ-9 total. There is also no verified universal five-point change rule or single repeat schedule for every PHQ-8 use. A difference does not prove that treatment worked or failed.

Review the pattern with a qualified provider. Symptoms, functioning, physical health, safety, and personal circumstances all belong in that conversation.

The bottom line

The PHQ-8 summarizes eight depression symptoms from the past two weeks. Its ranges describe symptom-frequency totals, not diagnoses or treatment instructions.

It does not ask about suicide or self-harm. A low or high PHQ-8 total cannot replace direct safety questions when those concerns may be present.