Evidence-based guides to recognizing depression, understanding the PHQ-9, and finding the kind of help that actually fits your situation.
PHQ-9 Explained · 9 min read
Looking for a printable PHQ-9 PDF? The PHQ-9 is free to reproduce without permission. Learn where the printable form comes from, how to score it by hand, when paper beats screen — and when the instantly scored online version is the better tool.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 9 min read
What's the difference between the PHQ-9 and PHQ-8? The PHQ-8 drops the question about self-harm thoughts. Learn why that question was removed for research settings, why the scores stay nearly identical, and why clinical screening keeps it.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 9 min read
The PHQ-9 depression screener was validated on ~6,000 patients and confirmed by two decades of meta-analyses. Here's what its 88% sensitivity and specificity actually mean — and what a score can't tell you.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 9 min read
The PHQ-9 screens for depression, the GAD-7 for anxiety — but the two conditions overlap so often that taking only one can miss half the picture. Here's how the two tools compare and when you should take both.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 10 min read
How is the PHQ-9 scored? A complete guide to the 0–27 scale — how points add up, what each of the five severity bands means, the follow-up difficulty question, and why Question 9 is scored differently.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 8 min read
The PHQ-2 is the PHQ-9's two-question shortcut. Here's how the two scales differ, what the cut-points are, how two-step screening works, and when each one is the right tool.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 10 min read
A plain-language walkthrough of all nine PHQ-9 questions — what each one is really asking, why it's there, how the scoring works, and how to approach the final question about self-harm.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 8 min read
Wondering whether your PHQ-9 score is normal? Here's what the 0–4 range means, where most people fall, and why a 'normal' number isn't always the whole story.
Read article →Depression & Lifestyle · 8 min read
The gut-brain axis, inflammation, and dietary patterns all connect to depression — but the relationship is more nuanced than headlines suggest. Here's what the evidence actually says about how diet affects mood.
Read article →Depression Types · 8 min read
Seasonal affective disorder is a recurrent form of depression that follows the calendar — most often arriving in fall and lifting in spring. Here's what drives it, how it differs from ordinary winter low mood, and what treatments actually work.
Read article →Symptoms & Daily Life · 8 min read
Depression and poor sleep are so tightly linked that each can cause the other. Here's what's behind the relationship, why standard sleep advice often fails with depression, and what actually works.
Read article →Specific Populations · 9 min read
Women are diagnosed with depression at roughly twice the rate of men. The reasons are a mix of biology, hormones, social load, and how distress gets expressed — not simply 'women feel more.' Here's what's actually going on.
Read article →PHQ-9 Explained · 10 min read
The PHQ-9 is the most widely used depression screening tool in the world. Here's what it actually is, what your score means, why some sites cut Item 9 (and why we don't), and how to use it well.
Read article →Recognizing Depression · 9 min read
Depression doesn't always look like sadness. From subtle changes in sleep and appetite to a quieter loss of interest in the things you used to love, here are 12 signs that warrant paying attention.
Read article →Understanding Depression · 8 min read
Sadness is an emotion. Depression is a condition. They share territory but behave differently — in duration, in reach, in how they respond to good things happening. Here's how to tell them apart.
Read article →Understanding Depression · 9 min read
There's a version of depression that doesn't show up at work, doesn't cancel plans, and doesn't look like depression from the outside. It's still depression. Here's what high-functioning depression looks like, why it gets missed, and why it deserves to be taken seriously.
Read article →Supporting Others · 9 min read
When someone you love is depressed, the instinct to fix it often backfires. Here's a practical guide to what actually helps — and what doesn't — when supporting someone through depression.
Read article →Specific Populations · 10 min read
Postpartum depression is more common than most people realize, and it is treatable. Here's what distinguishes it from the baby blues, the signs to watch for, and how to get evaluated when you suspect it's more than adjustment.
Read article →Specific Populations · 9 min read
Men are diagnosed with depression at half the rate of women, yet die by suicide far more often. The gap isn't because men don't get depressed — it's because depression in men often looks like anger, withdrawal, or overwork rather than sadness.
Read article →Specific Populations · 9 min read
Depression often first appears in the teen years and early twenties, and it can look different from depression in older adults. Here's what to watch for, why this age group is uniquely vulnerable, and how to get help.
Read article →Understanding Depression · 9 min read
Depression and anxiety overlap more often than not. Roughly half of people diagnosed with one also meet criteria for the other. Here's why they travel together, how to tell them apart, and what it means for treatment.
Read article →Treatment · 9 min read
When two or more antidepressants haven't worked, depression is sometimes called treatment-resistant. It's a frustrating label — but it's also the doorway to a set of options many people don't know exist, from TMS to ketamine to careful reassessment.
Read article →Treatment · 9 min read
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the most rigorously studied talk therapy for depression — and one of the best-evidenced treatments in mental health, period. Here's what it actually does, what a course looks like, and how to find it.
Read article →Treatment · 10 min read
SSRIs are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants in the world, yet they're widely misunderstood. Here's a plain-language, balanced look at how they work, how long they take, what side effects to expect, and how stopping them works.
Read article →Treatment · 8 min read
Exercise is often recommended for depression — sometimes glibly. Here's what the research genuinely supports, how much and what kind seems to help, why it works, and where its limits are.
Read article →Take the standard 9-item PHQ-9 — confidential and free.
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