The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) is a brief self-report questionnaire that screens for generalized anxiety and measures how severe the symptoms are. It is widely used by doctors and researchers because it is short and easy to repeat.
What does it ask?
Seven questions ask how often, over the last two weeks, you have been bothered by problems such as feeling nervous or on edge, not being able to stop or control worrying, worrying too much about different things, trouble relaxing, being so restless that it is hard to sit still, becoming easily annoyed or irritable, and feeling afraid as if something awful might happen.
How is it scored?
Each item scores from 0 ("not at all") to 3 ("nearly every day"), giving a total from 0 to 21. Higher totals indicate more frequent anxiety symptoms.
What a high score means
A high score means your recent symptoms resemble those seen in anxiety disorders and are worth discussing with a professional. It does not confirm a diagnosis. Anxiety-like symptoms can also come from caffeine, thyroid problems, medication, lack of sleep or other conditions.
Anxiety takes different forms
The GAD-7 focuses on generalized worry. Panic, social anxiety and avoidance of specific situations are different patterns and are measured with other tools. For example, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire looks at how excessive and uncontrollable your worry is, and the Oxford Agoraphobic Avoidance Scale measures avoidance. All of these are on our anxiety test page.
Things that can help
Regular sleep, physical activity, less caffeine, breathing and relaxation practices, and talking with someone you trust can help with mild anxiety. If anxiety is affecting your work, studies or relationships, or lasts for weeks, speak with a doctor or clinical psychologist. Therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy are well studied for anxiety.
You may also find our stress test and mindfulness test useful.