Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) Scale

Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by the following problems?
  Not at all Several days More than half the days Nearly every day
1. Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge 0 1 2 3
2. Not being able to stop or control worrying 0 1 2 3
3. Worrying too much about different things 0 1 2 3
4. Trouble relaxing 0 1 2 3
5. Being so restless that it's hard to sit still 0 1 2 3
6. Becoming easily annoyed or irritable 0 1 2 3
7. Feeling afraid as if something awful might happen 0 1 2 3
Total 0
  Not difficult at all Somewhat difficult Very difficult Extremely difficult
10. If you checked off any problems, how difficult have these problems made it for you to do your work, take care of things at home, or get along with other people? O O O O
0-4 ----- Minimal Anxiety

5-9 ----- Mild anxiety

10-14 ----- Moderate Anxiety

15-21 ----- Severe anxiety

Scores of 5, 10, and 15 are taken as the cut-off points for mild, moderate and severe anxiety, respectively.

When used as a screening tool, further evaluation is recommended when the score is 10 or greater.

Using the threshold score of 10, the GAD-7 has a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 82% for GAD. It is moderately good at screening three other common anxiety disorders - panic disorder (sensitivity 74%, specificity 81%), social anxiety disorder (sensitivity 72%, specificity 80%) and post-traumatic stress disorder (sensitivity 66%, specificity 81%).

Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JBW, Lowe B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:1092-1097.