Academic Journal
An intensive longitudinal study on interpretation issues with the PHQ instructions.
| Τίτλος: | An intensive longitudinal study on interpretation issues with the PHQ instructions. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Seizer L; Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Tübingen, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Germany. Electronic address: lennartmseizer@gmail.com., Schiepek G; Institute of Synergetics and Psychotherapy Research, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria; University Hospital of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria. |
| Πηγή: | Journal of affective disorders [J Affect Disord] 2026 Sep 01; Vol. 408, pp. 121826. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Apr 20. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 7906073 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-2517 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01650327 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Affect Disord Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Amsterdam, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press. |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Depression*/diagnosis , Depression*/psychology , Patient Health Questionnaire*, Humans ; Longitudinal Studies ; Female ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Symptom Burden |
| Περίληψη: | Concerns have been raised that PHQ-9 instructions ("bothered by" symptoms) conflict with frequency-based response options, potentially leading to some patients experiencing difficulty mapping lived experience onto response options and may conflate frequency with burden. We tested whether weekly PHQ-9 scores aligned more with symptom frequency or burden using an intensive longitudinal design. Depressed patients (n = 23) reported daily symptom presence and burden (n = 1290 days) and completed weekly PHQ-9 (n = 236 weeks). Mixed-effects models decomposed within- and between-person effects and estimated patient-specific frequency-burden weights. Frequency and burden were highly correlated; each predicted PHQ-9 scores when modeled alone, but neither showed unique effects jointly. Thus, weekly PHQ-9 change may reflected a shared symptom-severity signal; person-level heterogeneity was suggested but uncertain. Findings are preliminary and should be interpreted alongside the PHQ-9's strong evidence base. (Copyright © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Depression; Ecological momentary assessment; Patient health questionnaire |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260422 Date Completed: 20260715 Latest Revision: 20260715 |
| Update Code: | 20260716 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jad.2026.121826 |
| PMID: | 42019762 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1573-2517 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jad.2026.121826 |