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Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) Online Calculator

Dizziness can affect more than balance. It can also affect your mood, energy, sleep, and interest in daily activities. These questions ask about depression symptoms over the past 2 weeks because feeling down or losing interest in things can sometimes happen along with ongoing dizziness. The score does not give a diagnosis, but it can help show how these symptoms may be affecting daily life and help guide a conversation with a healthcare provider.

Why use the PHQ-8?

The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) helps clinicians understand how much depression symptoms may be affecting a patient’s daily life. Dizziness can sometimes happen along with changes in mood, sleep, energy, focus, and interest in activities. The PHQ-8 does not diagnose the cause of dizziness, but it can provide useful context when symptoms include feeling down, low motivation, fatigue, or reduced participation in daily routines. It can also be used to track patient-reported change over time.

Common Clinical Uses

Clinicians may use the PHQ-8 to:

  • Screen for depression symptoms

  • Understand how mood, sleep, and energy may affect daily function

  • Support baseline documentation and care planning

  • Guide conversations about mental health support when appropriate

  • Measure patient-reported change over time

  • Document symptom progress during treatment

PHQ-8 Online Calculator 

Answer each prompt based on how you have been feeling during the past 2 weeks. Your score will appear after you have answered all of the questions.

Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by the following problems?

Little interest or pleasure in doing things
Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless
Trouble falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much
Feeling tired or having little energy
Poor appetite or overeating
Feeling bad about yourself — or that you are a failure or have let yourself or your family down
Trouble concentrating on things, such as reading the newspaper or watching television
Moving or speaking so slowly that other people could have noticed — or being so fidgety or restless that you have been moving around a lot more than usual
Complete all required questions to view the score.
PHQ-8 literature and scoring references
  1. Kroenke K, Strine TW, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW, Berry JT, Mokdad AH. The PHQ-8 as a measure of current depression in the general population. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2009;114(1–3):163–173. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2008.06.026.
  2. Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW. The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2001;16(9):606–613. doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x.
  3. Villarroel MA, Terlizzi EP. Symptoms of depression among adults: United States, 2019. NCHS Data Brief. 2020;(379):1–8.

The PHQ-8 total score ranges from 0 to 24. Higher scores suggest more depression symptoms. The PHQ-8 uses the first 8 symptom items from the PHQ-9 and is commonly used for screening, severity measurement, and symptom tracking. This tool does not diagnose depression or replace care from a licensed clinician.

Looking for a printable version?

Our design team has made improvements to the visual design of the standard questionnaire and we are providing this free of charge. Download the printable PDF version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8).