Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7
A 7-item self-report screener for the severity of generalized anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks. Public-domain instrument intended for use under clinician supervision.
This is a clinical instrument. It is not publicly self-administered — a clinician assigns it through a secure patient link.
At a glance
What it measures
The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Löwe, 2006) is a 7-item self-report screener for the severity of generalized anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks, scored 0–3 per item. The summed total is read against the severity bands published in the original report and shown in the scoring section below.
Like its companion PHQ-9, it is free to reproduce and is used as a first-line screen rather than a diagnostic determination.
Psychometric properties
The notes below are reproduced from the platform's psychometrics register for this instrument — the same source-cited reliability, validity, and norms text that accompanies its downloadable report.
Internal consistency is excellent (alpha = 0.92) with good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation = 0.83) (Spitzer et al., 2006).
At a cutoff of 10, sensitivity is 0.89 and specificity 0.82 for generalized anxiety disorder (Spitzer et al., 2006).
Validated in a large primary-care sample; also screens for panic, social anxiety, and PTSD at the same cutoff.
Example item
“Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge”
Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.
Scoring & interpretation
Item responses are summed to a total score and compared against published screening cutoffs.
| Band | Threshold | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Minimal | ≥ 0 | Total 0–4: minimal anxiety. |
| Mild | ≥ 5 | Total 5–9: mild anxiety. |
| Moderate | ≥ 10 | Total 10–14: moderate anxiety; a score of 10 or more is the recommended cutoff for further evaluation. |
| Severe | ≥ 15 | Total 15–21: severe anxiety; active treatment is warranted. |
Psychometrics & norms
| Scale | M | SD | N | α | Metric |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anxiety Severity | — | 3.28 | 2519 | 0.90 | empirical percentile table |
Kliem et al. (2025), Frontiers in Psychology, 16:1526181 (open access, CC BY) — weighted cumulative percentile ranks for the summed GAD-7 (0–21) in a representative German adult general-population sample (N = 2,519; M = 2.18, SD = 3.28; Cronbach’s α = 0.90). These are general-population reference data, not definitive clinical norms. For clinical context only, Spitzer et al. (2006) reported M = 14.4, SD = 4.7 among 73 participants diagnosed with GAD; that distribution is not used to calculate the displayed percentile.
Source & citation
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097. Public domain (no permission required).
Scoring. Severity bands per Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097 (0–4 minimal, 5–9 mild, 10–14 moderate, 15–21 severe; ≥10 suggested cutoff).
GAD-7 © Pfizer Inc. Developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B. W. Williams, Kurt Kroenke and colleagues. No permission is required to reproduce, translate, display, or distribute it.
References
- Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Lowe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092-1097.
- Lowe, B., Decker, O., Muller, S., et al. (2008). Validation and standardization of the GAD-7 in the general population. Medical Care, 46(3), 266-274.