Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7

GAD-7

psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no license fee. Cite the original publication.

A 7-item self-report instrument for screening and measuring the severity of generalized anxiety disorder.

Items

Response format

4-point frequency scale

Version

1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Anxiety was assessed using the GAD-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006), a 7-item self-report scale with excellent internal consistency (α = .92). Scores of 5, 10, and 15 represent mild, moderate, and severe anxiety thresholds respectively.

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Reliability & validation

Validation population

Primary care patients

Test–retest

0.83

Cronbach's α

0.92

Scoring

Download scoring sheet (CSV)

Total: Sum of items 1–7
Score range: 0–21
Reverse-keyed items: None
Mild: 5–9
Moderate: 10–14
Severe: 15–21

Each item is scored 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). When screening for anxiety disorders, the developers recommend further evaluation at a score of 10 or greater.

Source: Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., Kroenke, K., et al. Instructions for Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) and GAD-7 measures. Instruction manual, p. 6.

Response anchors

Not at all · Several days · More than half the days · Nearly every day

Known limitations

Validated in primary care populations. High sensitivity may produce false positives in non-clinical samples. Not a diagnostic instrument.

Original citation

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.

https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092

Questions researchers ask

What does the GAD-7 measure?

A 7-item self-report instrument for screening and measuring the severity of generalized anxiety disorder.

How many items does the GAD-7 have?

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) has 7 items.

Is the GAD-7 free to use?

The GAD-7 is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the GAD-7 reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.92, test–retest reliability of 0.83. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the GAD-7, and how do I cite it?

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. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092

How do you score the GAD-7?

Total: Sum of items 1–7. Score range 0–21. Reverse-keyed items: None. Mild: 5–9. Moderate: 10–14. Severe: 15–21.

Or track new research mentioning GAD-7 as it publishes

Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference. Questionnaires are built in Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing, and can be taken to Qualtrics, Google Forms or Microsoft Forms, with their CSV responses brought back for scoring.