Equivalency of the diagnostic accuracy of the PHQ-8 and PHQ-9: A systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis

Yin Wu, Brooke Levis, Kira E. Riehm, Nazanin Saadat, Alexander W. Levis, Marleine Azar, Danielle B. Rice, Jill Boruff, Pim Cuijpers, Simon Gilbody, John P.A. Ioannidis, Lorie A. Kloda, Dean McMillan, Scott B. Patten, Ian Shrier, Roy C. Ziegelstein, Dickens H. Akena, Bruce Arroll, Liat Ayalon, Hamid R. BaradaranMurray Baron, Charles H. Bombardier, Peter Butterworth, Gregory Carter, Marcos H. Chagas, Juliana C.N. Chan, Rushina Cholera, Yeates Conwell, Janneke M. De Man-Van Ginkel, Jesse R. Fann, Felix H. Fischer, Daniel Fung, Bizu Gelaye, Felicity Goodyear-Smith, Catherine G. Greeno, Brian J. Hall, Patricia A. Harrison, Martin Härter, Ulrich Hegerl, Leanne Hides, Stevan E. Hobfoll, Marie Hudson, Thomas Hyphantis, Masatoshi Inagaki, Nathalie Jetté, Mohammad E. Khamseh, Kim M. Kiely, Yunxin Kwan, Femke Lamers, Shen Ing Liu, Manote Lotrakul, Sonia R. Loureiro, Bernd Löwe, Anthony McGuire, Sherina Mohd-Sidik, Tiago N. Munhoz, Kumiko Muramatsu, Flávia L. Osório, Vikram Patel, Brian W. Pence, Philippe Persoons, Angelo Picardi, Katrin Reuter, Alasdair G. Rooney, Iná S. Santos, Juwita Shaaban, Abbey Sidebottom, Adam Simning, Lesley Stafford, Sharon Sung, Pei Lin Lynnette Tan, Alyna Turner, Henk C. Van Weert, Jennifer White, Mary A. Whooley, Kirsty Winkley, Mitsuhiko Yamada, Andrea Benedetti, Brett D. Thombs

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

201 Scopus citations

Abstract

Item 9 of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) queries about thoughts of death and self-harm, but not suicidality. Although it is sometimes used to assess suicide risk, most positive responses are not associated with suicidality. The PHQ-8, which omits Item 9, is thus increasingly used in research. We assessed equivalency of total score correlations and the diagnostic accuracy to detect major depression of the PHQ-8 and PHQ-9.Methods We conducted an individual patient data meta-analysis. We fit bivariate random-effects models to assess diagnostic accuracy.Results 16 742 participants (2097 major depression cases) from 54 studies were included. The correlation between PHQ-8 and PHQ-9 scores was 0.996 (95% confidence interval 0.996 to 0.996). The standard cutoff score of 10 for the PHQ-9 maximized sensitivity + specificity for the PHQ-8 among studies that used a semi-structured diagnostic interview reference standard (N = 27). At cutoff 10, the PHQ-8 was less sensitive by 0.02 (-0.06 to 0.00) and more specific by 0.01 (0.00 to 0.01) among those studies (N = 27), with similar results for studies that used other types of interviews (N = 27). For all 54 primary studies combined, across all cutoffs, the PHQ-8 was less sensitive than the PHQ-9 by 0.00 to 0.05 (0.03 at cutoff 10), and specificity was within 0.01 for all cutoffs (0.00 to 0.01).Conclusions PHQ-8 and PHQ-9 total scores were similar. Sensitivity may be minimally reduced with the PHQ-8, but specificity is similar.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1368-1380
Number of pages13
JournalPsychological Medicine
Volume50
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019.

Keywords

  • Depression
  • PHQ-8
  • PHQ-9
  • diagnostic accuracy
  • individual participant data meta-analysis
  • meta-analysis
  • screening
  • systematic review

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