GAD-7 scoring calculator

The GAD-7 comes from the same team as the PHQ-9, Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams and colleagues, published in 2006, and the two are usually administered together in UK services. Seven items scored 0 to 3 over the last two weeks give a total from 0 to 21, with bands at minimal, mild, moderate and severe.

The number is a severity dial, not a formulation. The measure cannot tell generalised worry from a panic disorder, social anxiety, or an entirely proportionate response to a frightening situation; a client mid divorce or awaiting biopsy results can score 15 without any disorder at all. What it does well is show movement, and movement is what clients and services both want to see.

In NHS Talking Therapies, 8 or more counts as above caseness and a change of 4 or more counts as reliable. Those thresholds are useful shared language in private practice too: when a GP referral letter says a client scored 16, you know what the service meant by it, and when you discharge with a 5, the letter back carries weight.

The caveat that keeps the page honest: anxiety scores are noisy week to week, moving with caffeine, sleep and Sunday-night emails, which is exactly why the reliable change threshold exists. One elevated reading is a data point; three is a pattern; and a falling line while someone quietly narrows their life is not recovery. The measure informs judgement and never replaces it.