You are wondering if you need help for your anxiety and depression. There are many different anxiety and depression scales or questionnaires that you can fill out. These scales ask questions about your current mood that can illuminate what is currently wrong with your life, and guide you on the necessary steps to fix it.
History
Greek and Roman physicians tried to treat anxiety and depression, which they called "melancholia," with exercise, diet, music and baths. Even in the early nineteenth century, European doctors could do little for dangerously anxious and depressed patients beyond placing them under close family watch, confining them to insane asylums, and prescribing laudanum, an addictive opium and alcohol mixture. In the late nineteenth century, as described in Pittsburgh Mercy Hospital's online essay, "Historical Understandings of Depression," two psychiatrists revolutionized the treatment of anxiety and depression: Sigmund Freud created psychotherapy, and Emil Kraepelin pioneered studying the biological causes of emotional problems.
Measuring Symptom Severity
Doctors wanted to measure the severity of anxiety and depression symptoms in a consistent manner, so they could study the illness and accurately determine a patient's exact symptoms. One of the first psychological tests, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, appeared in 1940. Anxiety and depression rating scales are widely utilized by therapists and their patients today. An article, "Correlations among depression rating scales," on the Priory Medical Journals website, lists some of the most popular scales, including the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale.
Hamilton Rating Scale
The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression is available as a free download from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. You will answer twenty-one questions about your depressed mood, sleep problems and fears, rated on a scale of zero--feelings are not present--to four--feelings are intense. It is designed to be used by a psychiatrist to evaluate a patient, but you can fill it out as if you were observing yourself. The higher your score, the greater your anxiety and depression.
Beck Depression Inventory
The Beck Depression Inventory--better known as the BDI--was created by Dr. Aaron Beck, the pioneer of cognitive therapy, in which therapists teach clients to talk back to negative thoughts and replace them with more positive ideas. The Beck Depression Inventory is available as a free, downloadable PDF file, and is composed of twenty-one statements about your current feelings of sadness, self-criticism and pessimism, ranked on a scale of zero--the negative feelings are absent--to four--the negative feelings are extreme. If your score is 29 points or higher, you may wish to get counseling.
Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale
The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale consists of twenty statements, such as "I have nightmares," all rated on a scale of one--meaning "none or a little of the time"--to four--"most or all of the time." You can download the test as a free PDF file. Just like the other two scales, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale results show that the higher your score, the greater your depression.
