How to Read a Depression Self-Test Score — PHQ-9 Bands Explained

If your PHQ-9 depression self-test comes back at 10 or higher and has stayed there for more than two weeks, it is time to talk with a psychiatrist or a counselor. Keep in mind, though, that the score is a gauge of how heavy your symptoms are, not a diagnosis. This guide walks through how the PHQ-9 is scored, what each of the five bands from 0 to 27 means, the one item you should read separately from the total, and how to use repeat testing to track change.

How the PHQ-9 is scored

The PHQ-9 asks how often nine symptoms bothered you over the past two weeks. Each item is scored 0 for not at all, 1 for several days, 2 for more than half the days and 3 for nearly every day. The nine items add up to a total of 0 to 27, and the whole thing takes about two minutes.

The nine items cover loss of interest or pleasure, low mood, sleep problems, fatigue, appetite change, self-blame, trouble concentrating, feeling slowed down or restless, and thoughts of death or self-harm. They mirror the symptom criteria for major depressive disorder one for one, which is why clinicians use the PHQ-9 so widely as a quick severity gauge.

What each score band means

These bands come from the researchers who developed the PHQ-9, and Soundary reports your result using the same cutoffs. A score of 10 is the most common screening threshold; in the original validation study, 10 or above identified major depression with a sensitivity and specificity of about 88% each. In other words, 10 does not mean you have depression. It means the level is worth a professional look.

What mild, moderate and severe actually feel like

Mild (5-9) usually means your mood dips often and sleep or appetite wobble, but work and relationships mostly hold. At this stage, practical adjustments help: regular sleep, daylight and light exercise, time with people you feel at ease with. Re-check in two weeks to see which way things are heading.

From moderate (10-14), the changes become noticeable: concentration slips, tasks get put off, things you used to enjoy go flat. Others may not see it yet, but each day feels heavy to you. If this persists beyond two weeks, getting help sooner rather than later tends to shorten the road back.

Moderately severe and above (15+) means most days are a struggle. Sleep may nearly disappear or swing to far too much, self-criticism gets harsh, and your body may feel slowed to a crawl. This is not something willpower fixes, and it responds well to treatment, so please see a psychiatrist as soon as you can.

Item 9: the one to read apart from the total

The last item asks whether you have had thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself. Read it on its own, whatever the total. Even if every other item is 0, marking anything above 0 here is reason enough to talk with a professional.

If those thoughts are with you right now, set the scoring aside and reach out now: to someone you trust, a nearby psychiatric clinic, an emergency room, or a crisis line. Thoughts like these are a common symptom when depression deepens, and they do ease with help. This is not something you have to carry alone.

• 🌧️Depression (PHQ-9)How low your mood has been over 2 weeks.Take the test →
• ⚡1-min mind check (PHQ-4)Ultra-brief depression & anxiety screen.Take the test →

At what score should you see a doctor?

Here is the short version. See a doctor when a score of 10 or more lasts beyond two weeks, when you score 15 or more, when you marked the last item regardless of total, or when your score is low but work, school or relationships are clearly suffering. The number is a reference point; what matters most is how much your daily life is being shaken.

At the visit, the doctor will ask when the symptoms began and how long they have lasted, how your sleep, appetite and energy are, whether a physical cause such as thyroid disease or anemia could be behind the low mood, what medications you take, and whether you have had periods of unusually elevated mood. Your self-test score is a good place to start that conversation. If you are short on time, the four-item PHQ-4, which pairs two depression items with two anxiety items, offers a quick first pass.

Using repeat testing to track change

Because the PHQ-9 covers the past two weeks, retesting every two weeks is about right. Daily testing mostly captures day-to-day mood swings and blurs the trend, while testing too rarely misses change. If you are in treatment or counseling, logging a score every two to four weeks gives you and your doctor something concrete to look at.

When you read the trend, look past one- or two-point wobbles. Studies that track treatment outcomes treat a change of five points or more as meaningful, and a drop to half of the starting score or less as a treatment response. Going from 16 to 8, for example, still lands in the mild band, but the direction is unmistakably good.

Soundary also offers its own Mood Weather self-check, which looks at the same territory through a different set of questions. Its 16 items, written by Soundary rather than adapted from a standardized scale, cover mood, interest, sleep and appetite, energy, loneliness and outlook over the past two weeks. Alternating it with the PHQ-9 can fill in texture a single score tends to miss.

• 🌫️Mood Weather: Depression (SMW-16)A broad look at your mood, sleep, energy and thoughts over 2 weeks.Take the test →

A depression self-test score is not a verdict on who you are. It is a tool for weighing how heavy things feel right now and deciding what to do next. If you passed 10, talk to someone. If you marked the last item, get help now. And whatever band you are in, check again in two weeks and watch the trend.