Am I Depressed? The Ten Best Online Screening Tools for Depression

Am I depressed? Sometimes it’s hard to work out whether or not you’re depressed. You feel sad or low, suffer tiredness and insomnia for a while, but does that mean depression?

In this post we present a comprehensive list of screening tools to help people ascertain whether or not they are depressed. Concerned friends and family who have noticed increased isolation or a noticeable change in mood in a loved one can also benefit from reading these tests. These tests provide a response and greater clarity to the question “Am I depressed?”

These are not official diagnosis tools, merely helpful questionnaires to identify depressed behavior. A full diagnosis needs to be done by a qualified mental health professional, such as a GP or psychiatrist.

Am I Depressed? The ten best online screening tools for depression

1. Mental Health America 

A pleasant-looking survey, the results are anonymous and confidential and provide follow-up contact information.

2. The Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Clinic is one of the most respected and used mental health sites on the net. This is a clean-looking app that scales accurately.

3. NHS UK

Like the Mayo Clinic, this is a clean-looking and simple procedure with nine simple questions. These assessment are less exhaustive although they are simple. For people who struggle with concentration and processing information this can be really useful.

4. The Black Dog Australia 

This is an excellent resource. We also highly recommend trying their depression education program and their bipolar test 

5. PsychCentral 

Based on the internationally recognised Goldberg scale for measuring depression.

6. Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD)

The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), also known as the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) or abbreviated to HAM-D, is a multiple choice questionnaire that clinicians may use to rate the severity of a patient’s major depression.^[1] Max Hamilton originally published the scale in 1960 and reviewed and evaluated it in 1966,1967, 1969, and 1980. The questionnaire, which is designed for adult patients and is in the public domain, rates the severity of symptoms observed in depression such as low mood, insomnia, agitation, anxiety and weight loss. ^[7] It is presently one of the most commonly used scales for rating depression in medical research.*

7 . Goldberg questionnaire

This is the classic Goldberg questionnaire which Psych Central elaborates on. As it mentions in the instructions you might reproduce this scale and use it on a weekly basis to track your moods. It also might also be used to show your doctor how your symptoms have changed from one visit to the next. Changes of five or more points are significant.*

8. K10 - Beyond Blue

This goes back a little further than some of the other screening tools, and is respected and used widely in Australia.

9. Sphere – Beyond Blue

Definitely an unique approach, this is 27 questions that break down the physical, feelings, thoughts and behavior. Logically laid out, from an Australian research depression agency. Australia’s Black Dog Institute and Beyond Blue and two organisations that are really effective in beating depression.

 10. DBS Alliance Depression Screener 

This screening form was developed from the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self-Report (QIDS-SR), it is easy to work through.

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