Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology QIDS-SR16
Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology QIDS-SR16 overview
Creator and Context
The Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology, Self-Report (QIDS-SR16) is a 16 item self report measure of depression severity, mapped directly to the nine DSM criterion domains for major depression.
It was developed by John Rush, Madhukar Trivedi and colleagues and published in 2003, derived from the 30 item Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology. It was the measurement backbone of the STAR*D trial. It is copyright protected and owned by UT Southwestern Medical Center, and distributed through Mapi Research Trust.
Presenting Conditions
The 16 items map to the nine DSM major depression domains:
Depressed mood
Decreased interest
Concentration and decision making
Self outlook, including worthlessness and guilt
Suicidal ideation
Energy and fatigability
Sleep
Weight and appetite
Psychomotor changes
Administration
Self administered, rating the last 7 days. Each item is scored 0 to 3. A clinician rated twin, the QIDS-C16, is also published and takes about 5 to 7 minutes to administer.
Desired Audience
Adults and adolescents with, or being assessed for, major depression.
The QIDS is built for measurement based care. It maps cleanly onto DSM criteria, it is short enough to run at every appointment, and it has a clinician rated twin, so a service can move between self report and clinician rating without changing the metric.
Considerations
The scoring is not a simple sum, and naive summation of all 16 items is the single most common implementation bug. It inflates scores.
It is a severity measure for the last 7 days, not a diagnostic instrument.
It is copyright protected. Free download is limited to academic users without industry funding and to clinicians using it in their own practice. Commercial users must request a licence through Mapi Research Trust.
How to score the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology QIDS-SR16
Conducting the assessment
The person rates 16 items from 0 to 3 for the last 7 days.
Interpretation
Scoring converts 16 items into 9 domain scores, then sums the domains for a total from 0 to 27.
The sleep domain takes the highest of the four sleep items
The weight and appetite domain takes the highest of the four appetite and weight items
The psychomotor domain takes the higher of the agitation and retardation items
The remaining six domains are single items
Severity bands:
0 to 5 none or remission
6 to 10 mild
11 to 15 moderate
16 to 20 severe
21 to 27 very severe
Clinical Considerations
Verify the domain maximum scoring before trusting any digital total.
Watch the suicidal ideation item independently of the total.
Use it repeatedly. Its value is in the trajectory, not a single reading.
Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology QIDS-SR16 use cases
Measuring depression severity in measurement based care
Tracking response to treatment at every appointment
Establishing remission
Research, including as the reference self report measure in STAR*D
Category
Depression
Research Summary
Rush, A. J., Trivedi, M. H., Ibrahim, H. M., et al. (2003). The 16 item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS), Clinician Rating (QIDS-C), and Self-Report (QIDS-SR): A psychometric evaluation in patients with chronic major depression. Biological Psychiatry, 54(5), 573 to 583.
Trivedi, M. H., Rush, A. J., Ibrahim, H. M., et al. (2004). The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology and the Quick Inventories of Depressive Symptomatology in public sector patients with mood disorders: A psychometric evaluation. Psychological Medicine, 34(1), 73 to 82.
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Note on Assessment licensing
Some assessments are copyright protected and require a licence or the copyright holder's permission for clinical, commercial or digital use. Where that applies, obtaining and maintaining that permission is the responsibility of the practice or organisation using the assessment. Tacklit provides the digital administration, scoring and reporting. We do not grant, transfer or supply rights to the underlying instrument.
