You took the test (or you're about to) and got a number between 0 and 27. Here is what each range actually means, where the famous cut-off of 10 comes from — and, just as important, what a score cannot tell you.
Haven't taken it yet? The PHQ-9 calculator takes about two minutes and scores itself. Come back here with your number.
Few or no symptoms reported. In clinical use this range usually means no action beyond everyday self-care. If you took the test because you feel awful despite the low number, trust the feeling over the arithmetic — the scale can miss things, and a conversation is still worthwhile.
Sensible next step: Retake in a month or two, or whenever things change.
Some symptoms, below the threshold where guidelines typically recommend active treatment. This is the watchful-waiting zone: symptoms are real, and self-help strategies — activity scheduling, thought records, sleep repair — have their best evidence right here.
Sensible next step: Self-care practices for 2–4 weeks, then retake and compare. Our behavioral activation planner and thought record are built for this range.
The cut-off of 10 is where the PHQ-9 best balances catching depression against false alarms (about 88% sensitivity and specificity at that point). Scores here mean symptoms are likely interfering with work, relationships, or daily functioning — and that an in-person assessment is the standard recommendation.
Sensible next step: Book a primary care or mental health appointment. Keep using self-care tools as support, not as the whole plan.
A heavy symptom burden. At this level, guidelines in most health systems recommend active treatment — therapy, medication, or both — rather than self-help alone. An in-person assessment also rules out physical contributors (thyroid problems, anemia, sleep apnea) that a questionnaire cannot see.
Sensible next step: Contact a mental health professional soon — days, not months. If getting an appointment is slow, tell the office your score; many triage by severity.
The highest band. Symptoms at this intensity are rarely something to white-knuckle through, and effective treatments exist. Please treat contacting a professional as urgent self-care, and lean on the crisis resources below if things feel unsafe at any point.
Sensible next step: Reach out now: a clinician, your doctor, or — if you feel at risk of harming yourself — 988 (US) or your local crisis line.
Question 9 asks about thoughts of being better off dead, or of hurting yourself. Any answer above “not at all” — even with a total in the minimal range — is treated as important on its own, because it is the scale's built-in safety signal. On this site it brings the crisis resources to the top of your result page. If that question is ever true for you, please use them the same day; they are free, confidential, and used to exactly this call.
It can't diagnose: the score counts symptom frequency over two weeks, not causes, history, or context. Grief, a brutal month at work, thyroid disease, and depression can all produce similar numbers with very different right responses. It can't grade your character, predict your future, or substitute for the trend — three scores across six weeks say far more than one score on a bad Tuesday. And a low score can't overrule your own experience: if you feel unwell, that is reason enough to talk to someone.
You don't have to be in a full-blown crisis to use these. They are free, confidential, and staffed by people who take calls like yours every day.
Outside the US: findahelpline.org lists crisis lines in 130+ countries. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.
This is a self-assessment screening tool, not a diagnosis. Only a qualified professional who talks with you in person can diagnose a mental health condition. Scores are a snapshot of the last two weeks — they are most useful compared over time.
10 is the standard cut-off: scores of 10+ are considered a positive screen that warrants an in-person diagnostic assessment. It was chosen because at that point the scale's sensitivity and specificity for major depression are both around 88%.
A change of about 5 points is generally considered clinically meaningful; smaller wiggles are within the scale's normal noise, especially if the two tests covered overlapping weeks. Look at the direction across three or more checks, and at how you're actually functioning.
Yes — bringing a score history is genuinely useful. Clinicians think in PHQ-9 numbers; a dated series from My Results is exactly the kind of record that makes a first appointment productive.
Strictly, 5–9 is the 'mild symptoms' band, and many people in it would not meet criteria for a depression diagnosis — recent stressors push scores up temporarily. It means 'worth attention and a recheck', not 'you have mild depression'.