Understand and use Mental Health Assessments in the Health app
Mental Health Assessments provide information about your current risk level for depression and anxiety. You can share your Mental Health data with others, including family and your health care provider.
Mental Health Assessments can be informative tools
The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), made available by Pfizer, can be useful tools to help identify if you are at risk for depression or anxiety. They are provided in the Health app for informational purposes only and the results are not a medical diagnosis.
If you have concerns about your mental health, consult a clinician.
About the results of your Mental Health Assessment
If you complete a Mental Health Assessment, you receive your Depression Risk or Anxiety Risk level based on established guidelines, as well as local mental health resources. These results and resources are provided for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for advice provided by a doctor or other qualified health care professional.
The results may indicate whether you are at risk for depression or anxiety, but only a clinician can provide a diagnosis. A medical professional will not follow up with you when you finish the assessments.
How to share your Mental Health data
To share a PDF of your results with your doctor: From the Mental Wellbeing category in the Health app, tap either Depression Risk or Anxiety Risk, then scroll to the bottom and tap Export PDF.
There is also a link to export the PDF after you complete a Depression Risk or Anxiety Risk assessment.
You can also share your Mental Health data with your family and friends with the Health Sharing feature in the Health app.
Health Sharing recipients that you choose to share with can view a summary of your Mental Wellbeing data, including State of Mind, Depression Risk, Anxiety Risk data.
They will also receive future updates relating to the data you share, unless you decide to stop sharing.
Health Sharing recipients do not have the ability to view the "Additional Context" that you add to a State of Mind log or your responses to the individual questions in a Mental Health Assessment.
All processing for State of Mind, Depression Risk, and Anxiety Risk data occurs on device. Apple can’t access or view any of the data that you share with other users using the Health Sharing feature. You can stop sharing your Mental Wellbeing data at any time.
If you have concerns about your mental health, consult a clinician.
Share your health data with friends and family
Licensing information
The assessments are only clinically validated in certain countries and languages. The PHQ-9 is available in the Health App to persons 13 years old and above, and the GAD-7 is available in the Health App for persons 18 years old and above.
The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, Kurt Kroenke and colleagues, with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc. They are in the public domain. No permission is required to reproduce, translate, display or distribute.
For more information, visit the Pfizer website: www.phqscreeners.com.
