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Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7

GAD-7
psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

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

Items
7
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.

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Primary care patients
Test–retest
0.83
Cronbach's α
0.92

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

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Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.