Assessed Mental Health Progress: PHQ-9, GAD-7 and WSAS

Each week, prior to the CBT sessions, I received a form to complete. This had 3 different questionnaires included to measure different levels of mood. This was useful for the counsellor to be able to see which areas I was struggling with the most, but also to recognise if there was any progress made as the goal was to hopefully be able to improve the scores, showing the treatment was potentially effective. On my last CBT session, I asked for my files to be sent to me and I am so glad it was allowed so I could visually see the progress and also for my own records. 

The PHQ-9 is to assess depression. It scores 9 different aspects from a scale of 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). It is not meant as a screening tool for depression, however enables tentative diagnosis, and is used to monitor the severity of depression and response to treatment. This was always my highest score, which was to be expected as I did have depression. I started prior to treatment, with a score of 26 in February. Over the weeks of treatment, this went down to 22, 20, 17, 12 and 7, so much improved and reflective of my personal experience. Apparently a score of less than 10 is the recommended level, so I am now actually less and I have probably further reduced since the official assessments too. 

The GAD-7 is to assess Generalised Anxiety Disorder. The score is calculated by assigning scores of 0, 1, 2, and 3, to the response categories of 'not at all', 'several days', 'more than half the days', and 'nearly every day', respectively, and adding together the scores for the seven questions. Prior to treatment, I scored a surprising 10. This then reduced to 6, 5 and 3. 

They also used a new-to-me assessment called the WSAS , standing for Work and Social Adjustment Scale. This looked at the affect the mental health condition had on the individuals ability to do certain day-to-day tasks in their lives. For each of the 5 questions, a score between 0 and 8 is given, from not at all affected to very severely affected. For this I scored 21 before treatment, which then went to 18, 16 and 13. 

I actually decided to retest myself whilst I was writing this post so I now have a score of 5 for MPQ-9, a score of 1 for GAD-7 and a score of 8 for WSAS. Like I said, I'm feeling so much better!