Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)

Overview

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a self-report questionnaire that serves as a screening for anxiety and depression.

The fourteen items, each ranked somewhere between 0 and 3 depending on frequency or intensity, are split between Anxiety and Depression.

For Anxiety:

1. I feel tense or ‘wound up’

2. I get a sort of frightened feeling as if something awful is about to happen

3. Worrying thoughts go through my mind

4. I can sit at ease and feel relaxed

5. I get a sort of frightened feeling like ‘butterflies’ in the stomach

6. I feel restless as I have to be on the move

7. I get sudden feelings of panic

For Depression:

1. I still enjoy the things I used to enjoy

2. I can laugh and see the funny side of things

3. I feel cheerful

4. I feel as if I am slowed down

5. I have lost interest in my appearance

6. I look forward with enjoyment to things

7. I can enjoy a good book or radio or TV program

History and Context

HADS was published by Anthony S. Zigmond and R. Philip Snaith in 1983 in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica:

“A self-assessment scale has been developed and found to be a reliable instrument for detecting states of depression and anxiety in the setting of an hospital medical outpatient clinic. The anxiety and depressive subscales are also valid measures of severity of the emotional disorder. It is suggested that the introduction of the scales into general hospital practice would facilitate the large task of detection and management of emotional disorder in patients under investigation and treatment in medical and surgical departments.” ¹

Links

Footnotes

1. The hospital anxiety and depression scale - PubMed ↩