Links To 17 Useful Evidence Based Mental Health Instruments For Primary Care Clinicians With Additional Resources

In this post  I link to and excerpt from np psych navigator’s web page, Psychiatric Scale NPsychlopedia. The web page contains links to 17 useful psychiatric scales for the diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems.

The 17 Psych scales are sufficient, I believe, for primary care clinicians to effectively manage mental health problems in an evidence-based manner.

Here is the list with links from the above article:

• Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS)
  • “The AIMS is a 12-item, clinician-rated scale assessing the severity of tardive dyskinesia (TD) in patients taking antipsychotic medications.”
• Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale (ASRM)
  • “The ASRM is a brief, 5-item self-rated assessment tool used to evaluate the symptoms of mania present in a patient for the past week.”
• Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)
  • “The BDI-II is a 21-item, self-rated scale that assesses the severity of depressive symptoms experienced by a patient with a diagnosed mood disorder over the past two weeks.”
• Brief Adherence Rating Scale (BARS)
  • “The BARS is a simple, 4-item questionnaire used to assess a patient’s adherence with their prescribed medication regimen.”
• Clinical Global Impression (CGI)
  • “The CGI is a 3-item, clinician-rated scale used to assess global illness severity, overall improvement from the start of treatment, and therapeutic response. The scale was designed to be universal and can be administered to a wide variety of patient populations.”
• Clinician-Administered Rating Scale for Mania (CARS-M)
  • “The CARS-M is a 15-item, clinician-rated scale used to assess symptoms of mania and psychosis experienced by a patient over the last 7 days.”
• Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)
  • “The C-SSRS (also known as the “Columbia Protocol”) is an interview-based tool used to quantify suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior in a patient. The C-SSRS was designed to be usable by anyone in any situation.”
• Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, 17 item (HAM-D-17)
  • “The HAM-D-17 is a simple, clinician-administered tool used to assess symptoms of depression experienced by a patient in the past week. The HAM-D-17 is one of the most widely used depression severity rating scales in the world.”
• Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)
  • “The MADRS is a 10-item, clinician-rated questionnaire used to evaluate the severity of depressive episodes in patients given a diagnosis of a mood disorder.”
• Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ)
  • “The MDQ is a brief, self-rated questionnaire that can be used to screen patients at risk for bipolar disorder.”
• Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-9)
  • “The PHQ-9 is a brief, self-rated questionnaire used to screen for symptoms of depression evident over the past two-week period.”
• Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)
  • “The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for schizophrenia is a 30-item instrument that allows providers to measure a patient’s clinical response to pharmacological treatment.1 It is considered to be commonly used for assessing antipsychotic treatment efficacy2.”
• Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS)
  • “The QIDS is a brief, 16-item self-rated assessment tool used to evaluate the symptoms of depression present in a patient during the past week.”
• Scales for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS)
  • “The Scales for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) is a 25-item assessment tool to measure negative symptoms in schizophrenia. The scale was developed in the early 1980s.”
• Scales for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS)
  • “The Scales for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) is a 34-item assessment tool to measure positive symptoms in schizophrenia. The scale was developed in the early 1980s.”
• Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS)
  • “The YMRS is the most frequently used scale for assessing symptoms of mania in patients diagnosed with or being screened for bipolar disorder. The scale has 11 items and is based on the patient’s self-report of his or her condition over the previous 48 hours.”
• Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS)
  • “The SDS is a 20-item, self-rated scale that assesses the severity of depressive symptoms that a patient has experienced during the past week.”

For clinicians who desire a deeper dive with a more extensive set of mental health structured diagnosis and treatment scales to choose from, please review my posts on Mental Health Monitoring Forms:

• Better, Worse, Or The Same? How Do We Measure Well-Being–Resources From The CDC
  Posted on August 5, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
  • CDC HRQOL–14 “Healthy Days Measure”
    • “On this Page”
      • Healthy Days Core Module (4 questions)
      • Activity Limitations Module (5 questions)
      • Healthy Days Symptoms Module (5 questions)
• Better? Worse? Or the Same?: Assessment of Disability Using WHODAS 2.0
  Posted on January 19, 2015 by Tom Wade MD
  • International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Web Page (Portal)
    • Measuring Health and Disability: Manual for WHO Disability Assessment Schedule WHODAS 2.0 [Full Text PDF]
    • ICF CHECKLIST Version 2.1a, Clinician Form for International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
• Resources For Screening For Health-Related Social Needs
  Posted on August 29, 2020 by Tom Wade MD
  • The Accountable Communities Health-Related Social Needs Screening Tool [Link is to the PDF] from the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services.
  • Standardized Screening for Health-Related Social Needs in Clinical Settings: The Accountable Health Communities Screening Tool, May 30, 2017.

And here are  even more posts on mental health assessment and monitoring forms.

• Evidence Based Assessment In Psych: Links To Four Resources On Assessment Of Depression
  Posted on July 24, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
• Evidence-Based Assessment In Psych: Links To Ten Resources On Assessment Of Anxiety
  Posted on July 24, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
• Evidence Based Assessment In Psych: Links To Three Resources On Assessment Of Overall Mental Health
  Posted on July 24, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
• An Introduction to Evidence-Based Assessment In Psychiatry And Psychology-Links To And Excerpts From An Outstanding Article
  Posted on July 24, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
• Links To And Excerpts From “Free, brief, and validated: Standardized instruments for low-resource mental health settings”
  Posted on July 18, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
• Links To And Excerpts From The Columbia Protocol: A UNIQUE SUICIDE RISK ASSESSMENT TOOL
  Posted on January 27, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
• Resources For Mental Health Screening From The Patient Health Questionnaire Screener
  Posted on January 26, 2021 by Tom Wade MD
• Depression Evaluation And Monitoring Instruments – Part 1
  Posted on February 27, 2019 by Tom Wade MD
• Depression Evaluation And Monitoring Instruments – Part 2
  Posted on February 27, 2019 by Tom Wade MD
• Assessing Suicide Risk Using the SAFE-T Suicide Assessment Tool
  Posted on May 13, 2014 by Tom Wade MD
• This is a placeholder. I need to post some resources on Violence risk assessment questions [Link is to my Google search on this topic].