Your PHQ-9 score runs from 0 to 27 and summarizes how often you reported nine depression symptoms during the past two weeks. The total falls into one of five descriptive severity bands. It does not diagnose depression, explain why the symptoms occurred, or decide what care you need.
What the score bands describe
Each answer contributes 0 to 3 points. Survey Doctor adds all nine answers.
| Score | Severity | What the band describes |
|---|---|---|
| 0-4 | None-minimal | Few symptoms reported in this two-week snapshot |
| 5-9 | Mild | Mild symptom frequency |
| 10-14 | Moderate | Moderate symptom frequency |
| 15-19 | Moderately severe | Moderately severe symptom frequency |
| 20-27 | Severe | Severe symptom frequency |
Labels do not decide care.
The original PHQ-9 validation study used thresholds of 5, 10, 15, and 20 for these bands. It included 6,000 adult patients from primary care and obstetrics-gynecology clinics. Of those, 580 received a structured mental health interview. The findings do not make a score a diagnosis in every person or setting.
The sample was specific.
A one-point change can cross a boundary, so moving from 9 to 10 changes the label without proving sudden health change. A low score also cannot show that no care is needed.
The boundary is thin.
What the nine items cover
The PHQ-9 asks about interest, mood, sleep, energy, appetite, feelings about yourself, concentration, movement or restlessness, and thoughts of death or self-harm.
Nine questions are not everything.
Those areas parallel depression symptom criteria. A full assessment still considers daily function and symptom history. It also considers medical causes, medicines or substances, other conditions, and the person's own account.
The audited Survey Doctor definition is the adult English form. This guide does not establish rules for an adolescent or modified youth version.
Item 9 needs separate attention
Item 9 asks about thoughts of being better off dead or hurting yourself. Any answer above zero deserves prompt, direct follow-up even when the total is low. The PHQ-9 is not a complete suicide risk assessment, and the total must never hide that answer.
Treat it separately.
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.
The functional question is separate
Published PHQ-9 materials can include an extra question about how symptoms affect work, home responsibilities, and relationships. That question stays outside the 0 to 27 total.
The total stays unchanged.
Survey Doctor offers this optional companion when any scored symptom is above zero. If answered, it is stored separately. An all-zero native result does not show it. Older, imported, and manual records without companion data mean that it was not collected. They do not show that functioning was unaffected.
What manual entry preserves
Survey Doctor accepts a manually entered PHQ-9 total only as a whole number from 0 to 27. That score-only record cannot establish the nine item answers. It also cannot confirm completeness, item 9 safety status, or the functional companion response.
Items stay unknown.
Review the source record before entering a total. Do not infer item 9 from the total, because the same total can come from many different answer patterns.
Some imported historical summaries may include an incompatible extra response in the reported number. Their item answers are missing. Survey Doctor preserves those records as legacy history but keeps them outside current PHQ-9 bands, trends, and clinical comparisons.
They stay outside current comparisons.
Comparing scores over time
Compare the same adult form under similar conditions, and look at the item answers as well as the total. A change in item 9 matters independently of any overall rise or fall.
Clinicians can use the PHQ-9 score-over-time guide to evaluate comparable results without turning a change threshold into an automatic outcome label.
Compare like with like.
There is no universal retest interval or one change threshold that fits every population and purpose. Band crossings are descriptive, not proof of treatment response or remission. Add the separately stored functional response when it is available, and ask about daily life when it is not.
What to do next
Bring the result to a doctor or therapist if symptoms persist, cause concern, or interfere with daily life. Tell them what the questionnaire missed, and continue an existing care plan unless you and the responsible clinician change it.
The score starts a conversation.
The GAD-7 score guide explains a related anxiety measure. Its scores answer a different question and should not be substituted for a PHQ-9 result. Compare their purposes in PHQ-9 vs GAD-7, then use the side-by-side scoring workflow if both are collected.
The bottom line
Your PHQ-9 total is a two-week symptom summary. Read the band as a description, treat item 9 separately, and include daily function and clinical context before drawing conclusions.