Informing Use of the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 to Detect Moderate or Greater Depression Symptoms in Adolescents and Young Adults in Outpatient Primary Care

Abstract

Objective: We compared the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-2 to the PHQ-9 and examined the implications of using various cutoff scores on the PHQ-2 to detect moderate or greater depressive symptoms on the PHQ-9. We hypothesized that a cutoff score of ≥2 would be optimal for detecting scores of ≥10 on the PHQ-9.

Methods: Demographic and depression screening data from 3,256 routine preventive visits for patients aged 12-25 years at the adolescent and young adult clinic at Children's Hospital Colorado between March 2017 and July 2019 were collected retrospectively. Patients completed routine depression screening at 2,183 visits which were included for analysis. PHQ-2 scores and PHQ-9 scores were calculated for each included patient visit. Associations between different PHQ-2 cutoff scores and moderate or greater depressive symptoms on the PHQ-9 (≥10) were evaluated.

Results: A PHQ-2 score ≥2 had a sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 83% for detecting patients with moderate or greater depressive symptoms on the PHQ-9. On a receiver operating characteristic curve, a PHQ-2 cutoff of ≥2 optimized sensitivity and specificity. Analysis of gender and ethnic/racial subgroups demonstrated the same optimal cutoff score for each group studied. For patients aged 21 years and older a PHQ-2 cutoff of ≥3 was most accurate.

Discussion: Lowering the positive PHQ-2 cutoff to ≥2 has several clinical advantages, including increased detection of moderate or greater depressive symptoms and depressive disorders. Providers may increase identification of depression by making this change particularly if they follow a positive PHQ-2 with a full PHQ-9.

Keywords: Depression; PHQ-2; PHQ-9; Screening; Suicidality; Youth.