• Mental health
  • General medicine

HADS score

Anxious and depressive symptoms

The HAD (HADS) scale is a self-administered screening questionnaire for anxiety and depressive symptoms, initially designed for patients receiving general medical care. It yields two distinct subscores, which should be interpreted separately and evaluated in conjunction with the clinical interview.

Number of questions
14 questions
Approximate duration
3 to 5 minutes
Population
Adults
Modality
Self-administered questionnaire

QuestionnaireHADS

SELF-QUESTIONNAIRE

Seven questions (odd numbers) relate to anxiety and seven (even numbers) to depression. Each item is scored from 0 to 3 according to its specific scale: the order of the answers and their meaning vary from one item to another. The period evaluated is the past week.

Are you patient?

You can complete this questionnaire yourself. Both results will be reviewed with the professional; they do not constitute automatic diagnoses.

Terms of contract

The choice of items limiting the somatic component aimed to reduce confusion with physical illness. This design does not remove the need to take the medical context and the patient's personal experience into account.

Score interpretationHADS

The seven items in each dimension are summed separately: anxiety (HADS-A) and depression (HADS-D), each ranging from 0 to 21.

Total score

First reading

  • 0 to 7

    Both sub-scores are 7 or less: below the screening threshold.

  • 8 to 10

    At least one sub-score is between 8 and 10: intermediate zone, possible symptomatology.

  • 11 to 21

    At least one subscore reaches 11 or more: suggestive symptomatology.

The HADS scale consists of two independent subscores, each ranging from 0 to 21 points: HADS-A (anxiety) and HADS-D (depression). These categories do not correspond to a definitive diagnosis of an anxiety or depressive disorder. HADS-A and HADS-D results must be displayed separately.

The HADS does not cover the entire psychiatric assessment. Its cut-offs should not be equated with diagnoses, and a clinical difficulty must not be overlooked simply because a subscore is low. The two subscores are not added together: the cut-offs do not apply to an overall score out of 42.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and references

Anthony S. Zigmond and R. Philip Snaith

Initial validation: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1983.

Questionnaires and associated scores

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