In addition to today’s resource, please review Using The WHOQOL-BREF: A 26-item questionnaire assessing four quality-of-life domains
Posted on April 29, 2026 by Tom Wade MD. This is a useful addition to any initial mental health evaluation. And serial evaluation of this scale, say monthly, can help determine if patient is better, worse, or the same.
Today, I review, and link to Pscyhiatric Times‘ “Clinical Scales”.
All that follows is from the above resource.
The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) is a tool clinicians or researchers use to measure psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and psychoses.
Persons having or suspected of having schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder manifest the disorder in multiple ways. The BPRS assesses the level of 18 symptom constructs such as hostility, suspiciousness, hallucination, and grandiosity. It is particularly useful in gauging the efficacy of treatment in patients who have moderate to severe psychoses.
It is based on the clinician’s interview with the patient and observations of the patient’s behavior over the previous 2-3 days. The patient’s family can also provide the behavior report.
The rater enters a number for each symptom construct that ranges from 1 (not present) to 7 (extremely severe). The time necessary to complete the interview and scoring can be as little as 20-30 minutes.
This video will help clinicians detect tardive dyskinesia and movement disorders in patients taking antipsychotic drugs.
A program guide for the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale video.
Program Guide For AIMS Instructional Video
Conducting a good Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) examination and scoring the results can be done in 10 or 15 minutes by an experienced clinician, allowing the tool to be used easily and repeatedly in the search for tardive dyskinesia. Those unfamiliar or less experienced with the AIMS procedures may find the initial learning somewhat complicated and frustrating, leading to potential errors in scoring. This instructional video has been created to teach the proper techniques to those new to the AIMS examination and as a constantly available resource on the Web for those who have done it before but want to refresh their skills. Dr. Jay Pomerantz demonstrates the 12 steps of the AIMS examination and explains how to score the results. The video was photographed in his office to show how easily it can be done in the confines of a busy clinician’s practice setting. Instead of using patients who have TD, we have turned to a “Standardized Patient”, an actor who has received special training in simulating medical problems accurately and is widely experienced in clinical teaching programs. “Patient Jerry” also offers the advantage of being able to demonstrate the four different levels of symptom severity for each muscle group whereas an actual patient could only show the single level of the disorder that was affecting them at the time.
Download AIMS Instructions (PDF)
The MDQ, developed by Dr Robert M.A. Hirschfeld and colleagues, is a screening instrument for bipolar disorder. It includes 13 yes/no questions about bipolar symptoms and two additional questions about symptom co-occurrence and impaired functioning.
The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), developed by Robert M.A. Hirschfeld, MD and colleagues, is a screening instrument for bipolar disorder. It includes 13 yes/no questions about bipolar symptoms and two additional questions about symptom co-occurrence and impaired functioning. The MDQ takes about 5 minutes to complete. It is the most widely used screening instrument for bipolar disorder in the world and has been translated into 19 languages.
Dr Hirschfeld is Titus H. Harris Chair, Harry K. Davis Professor, and Professor and Chair at the the University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Psychiatry, in Galveston, Texas.
Download MDQ Questionnaire (PDF)
Courtesy © Robert M.A. Hirschfeld, MD
MDI
The Major Depression Inventory (MDI) is a brief, self-report mood questionnaire that allows clinicians to assess the presence of a depressive disorder according to DSM-IV. It is also used to assess the severity of depressive symptoms. The MDI was developed by Professor Per Bech and colleagues, in conjunction with the Psychiatric Research Unit of the WHO Collaborative Center for Mental Health.
Geriatric Depression Scale, including GDS-S and GDS-L
The Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form (GDS-S) is a 15-question scale developed as a basic screening measure for depression in older adults: a score of higher than 5 indicates that a more thorough clinical investigation is needed. It is a generally valid measure of mild-to-moderate depression in Alzheimer patients with mild-to-moderate dementia.
The Geriatric Depression Scale Long form (GDS-L) is a 30-question scale developed as a basic screening measure for depression in older adults: a score of higher than 5 indicates that a more thorough clinical investigation is needed. It is a generally valid measure of mild-to-moderate depression in Alzheimer patients with mild-to-moderate dementia.
The GDS-S and GDS-Ls were developed by Jerome Yesavage, MD, and colleagues.
GAD-7
The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 item (GAD-7) was developed to diagnose generalized anxiety disorders and has been validated in 2740 primary-care patients. It has a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 82%. It is moderately good at screening 3 other common anxiety disorders: panic disorder (sensitivity 74%, specificity 81%), social anxiety disorder (sensitivity 72%, specificity 80%), and posttraumatic stress disorder (sensitivity 66%, specificity 81%). The GAD-7 was developed by Robert L. Spitzer, MD, and colleagues.Clinical Global Impressions scale – CGI
The Clinical Global Impressions scale – CGI is a 3-item observer-rated scale commonly used to measure symptom severity, global improvement, and therapeutic response. Each component of the CGI is rated separately; it does not yield a global score. Items 1 and 2 are rated on a 7-point scale; item 3 is rated from 0 to 4 (when rating item 3, therapeutic efficacy and treatment-related adverse events should be taken into account).Autism Scales – CHAT
The Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) is a highly accurate and elegant autism screening tool for early autism diagnosis. Study findings indicate that CHAT is 85% accurate in diagnosing autism and 100% accurate in diagnosing a developmental delay in general. The CHAT can be used for children aged 18 months or older. It was developed by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues.
This smartphone-friendly version of the HAM-D (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) measures levels of depression and probes the severity of symptoms, such as mood, guilt, suicidal thoughts, sleep, and anxiety.
The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale has proven useful for determining the level of depression before, during, and after treatment.
It is based on the clinician’s interview with the patient and probes symptoms such as depressed mood, guilty feelings, suicide, sleep disturbances, anxiety levels and weight loss.
The interview and scoring takes about 15 minutes. The rater enters a number for each symptom construct that ranges from 0 (not present) to 4 (extreme symptoms).
Mobile-friendly HAM-D.
Point of Care
These scales are easily used online and via mobile devices for assessment at the point of care. Score, share and record results.
Find them by suspected diagnosis:
Depression and Anxiety Clinical ScalesDownload HAM-D Instructions (PDF)
This iPhone and Android-friendly Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS) is found most helpful in detecting not only severe cases of bipolar disorder but also patients who fall into the “softer” end of the bipolar spectrum.
The Bipolar Clinical Scale was developed by Ronald Pies, MD and was later refined and tested by S. Nassir Ghaemi, MD, MPH and colleagues. The BSDS arose from Pies’s experience as a psychopharmacology consultant, where he was frequently called on to manage cases of “treatment-resistant depression.” In Pies’s experience, most of these cases eventually proved to be undiagnosed bipolar spectrum disorder.
The 19 question items on the English version of the BSDS were based on those questions that Pies found most helpful in detecting not only severe cases of bipolar disorder but also patients who fall into the “softer” end of the bipolar spectrum (eg, patients with a history of major depressive episodes and 1 or 2 episodes of elevated mood and energy that last only 1 to 3 days, thus not meeting DSM-IV criteria for hypomania).
The BSDS was validated in its original version and demonstrated a high sensitivity (0.75 in bipolar I and 0.79 in bipolar II and not otherwise specified individuals). Its specificity was high (0.85), which confers a significant value to this diagnostic tool in the detection of a wide range of presentations within the bipolar spectrum. Ghaemi and colleagues determined that a score of 13 is the optimal threshold for specificity and sensitivity in the detection of bipolar spectrum disorders.
The BSDS has two sections. The first part includes a series of 19 sentences that describe the main symptoms of bipolar spectrum disorders. Each sentence is linked to a blank space that should be checked by patients who decide that the statement is an accurate description of their feelings or behaviors. Each checked statement is assigned 1 point.
The second portion of the BSDS asks the patient to select the degree to which the 19-item narrative “fits” his or her own experience. The scale offers four possibilities: “This story fits me very well, or almost perfectly” (6 points); “This story fits me fairly well” (4 points); “This story fits me to some degree, but not in most respects” (2 points); and “This story doesn’t really describe me at all” (0 points).
Point of Care
These scales are easily used online and via mobile devices for assessment at the point of care. Score, share and record results.
Find them by suspected diagnosis:
Bipolar Clinical Scales [Link is to a Google search]
Download the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS)
Download the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS) Scoring Instructions
This mobile-friendly Vanderbilt ADHD Rating Scale follows closely the criteria set forth in DSM-IV and has been customized to make smartphone observations in the office and treatment environments.
Making the correct diagnosis in pediatric attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is especially important today. The Vanderbilt Rating Scales follow closely the criteria set forth in DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – IV) and have been customized to observations made in the home and classroom environments.
When the forms are returned to the mental health professional, the scoring allows the clinician not only to make a diagnosis of ADHD, if present, but also to categorize the problem into one of its various subtypes: inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, or combined. The Vanderbilt Scales also look for symptoms of frequent comorbidities, such as oppositional defiance, conduct disorder, anxiety, and depression. The Vanderbilt scales were developed by Mark L. Wolraich, MD and colleagues. Dr. Wolraich is currently the Shaun Walters Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City.Point of Care
These scales are easily used online and via mobile devices for assessment at the point of care. Score, share and record results.
Find them by suspected diagnosis:
ADHD Clinical Scales [Link is to a Google Search]
Download VADPRS Scoring Instructions (PDF)
Download VADTRS Scoring Instructions (PDF)
Developed by M.Hamilton, this widely-used interview scale measures the severity of a patient’s anxiety, based on 14 parameters, including anxious mood, tension, fears, insomnia, somatic complaints and behavior at the interview.
This widely used interview scale measures the severity of a patient’s anxiety, based on 14 parameters, including anxious mood, tension, fears, insomnia, somatic complaints and behavior at the interview. Developed by M.Hamilton in 1959, the scale predates, of course, the current definition of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, it covers many of the features of GAD and can be helpful also in assessing its severity. The major value of HAM-A is to document the results of pharmaco- or psychotherapy, rather than as a diagnostic or screening tool. It takes 15-20 minutes to complete the interview and scoring. Each item is simply given a 5-point score – 0 (not present) to 4 (severe).
Download HAM-A Instructions (PDF)
A large number of psychiatric tests, scales, and forms have been created over the years to help in diagnosing mental illness and assisting in treatment and follow-up. We’ve put many of the clinical scales online here, hoping healthcare professionals-whether in specialty practices, primary-care settings, or emergency services-will find this format convenient. Since most of the tools are designed for repeated use over time, they will provide not only a longitudinal view but also document the medical record.
In addition to the psychiatric clinical scales themselves, you will find instructions on how to administer and score the scales.
These scales have demonstrated high levels of accuracy and validity and the results can give important clues to possible mental disorders that warrant follow up. However, please remember that they depend on the skills of the clinicians administering them and the accuracy of the information provided by the patients.
Jay M. Pomerantz, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School, Boston
