Patient Health Questionnaire-15
PHQ-15A 15-item measure of somatic symptom burden covering the most prevalent physical complaints in primary care, over the past four weeks.
Ready-to-cite methods sentence
Reliability & validation
Response anchors
Not bothered at all · Bothered a little · Bothered a lot
Known limitations
Measures symptom burden regardless of medical cause, so an elevated score does not imply a somatoform disorder; one item (menstrual problems) is omitted for men, slightly changing the maximum.
Original citation
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W. (2002). The PHQ-15: Validity of a new measure for evaluating the severity of somatic symptoms. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64(2), 258-266.
https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-200203000-00008Questions researchers ask
What does the PHQ-15 measure?
A 15-item measure of somatic symptom burden covering the most prevalent physical complaints in primary care, over the past four weeks.
How many items does the PHQ-15 have?
The Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) has 15 items.
Is the PHQ-15 free to use?
The PHQ-15 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 PHQ-15 reliable?
Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.8. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.
Who developed the PHQ-15, and how do I cite it?
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W. (2002). The PHQ-15: Validity of a new measure for evaluating the severity of somatic symptoms. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64(2), 258-266. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-200203000-00008
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Related scales
Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.