Hopefully, readers of this blog clearly understand that I do not advocate screening for depression. But if you were going to screen your patient, you don't need a PHQ-9 or any other validated tool to do it. All you need is one question, "Are you depressed?" To be depressed is a completely nonspecific term which people use in a variety of different ways. But it is abolutely necessary for the diagnosis of, not just major depressive disorder, but of any sort of clinical disorder that includes depressed mood. Therefore, a denial of feeling depressed, rules out the disorder. An admission of "feeling depressed," however, does not mean that one has clinical depression, it just means you can't rule it out. In the case that the patient happens to answer, "Yes, I do feel depressed," then you need to ask more questions in order to make your assessment. Not that I advocate asking them in the first place; I don't. But if you insist on it, here's a way to make it easier.
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Just interested, Dr. Logan....Why do you not advocate screening for depression, even with your one word question?
Looking back, I realized that perhaps I never did clearly articulate my disdain for the practice of screening for depression. I don't like it for many reasons, most of them are the same as my reasons for my dislike of screening for domestic violence. You can read about that here.