What is the GAD-7?

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) is a brief, self-administered screening tool developed to efficiently assess symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. It is widely used in both clinical and research settings to support diagnosis, monitor symptom severity, and evaluate treatment response.

Created to address limitations of longer or interview-based anxiety measures, the GAD-7 can be completed in just 1–2 minutes and is well-suited for use in primary care, behavioral health, and integrated care environments.

In Creyos Health, the GAD-7 can be delivered in person or remotely. The platform includes written instructions to guide patients and ensure consistency in responses.

What It Measures

The GAD-7 assesses how often individuals have been bothered by common anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks. These include:

• Excessive worry

• Restlessness

• Trouble relaxing

• Irritability

• Physical symptoms such as tension or difficulty sleeping

Each of the 7 items is rated on a 4-point scale from 0 (“not at all”) to 3 (“nearly every day”), with a total score ranging from 0 to 21.

Scoring and Interpretation

The total GAD-7 score reflects the severity of anxiety symptoms:

• 0–4: Minimal anxiety

• 5–9: Mild anxiety

• 10–14: Moderate anxiety

• 15–21: Severe anxiety

A score of 8 or higher is often used as a threshold for identifying potential anxiety disorders, based on research demonstrating good sensitivity and specificity for clinical diagnosis (Johnson et al., 2019).

In Creyos Health, the GAD-7 is scored automatically and presented in a clinician report that includes severity classification, raw scores, and visual tracking of progress if administered more than once.

How It Relates to Cognition

Anxiety can significantly affect cognitive functioning—particularly attention, working memory, and executive function. By pairing the GAD-7 with cognitive tasks in Creyos Health, clinicians can better understand how anxiety may be impacting day-to-day cognitive performance and functioning. This pairing can guide personalized interventions and support holistic care planning.

Psychometric Properties

Despite its brevity, the GAD-7 has demonstrated excellent psychometric properties. Research supports its high reliability and validity across diverse patient populations and clinical settings. For example, Johnson et al. (2019) found the GAD-7 to be sensitive to symptom change and effective for screening in varied psychiatric populations.

Clinical Considerations

As with all screening tools, the GAD-7 should not be used in isolation for diagnosis. It is best used as a supplement to clinical interviews, functional assessments, and observations. Clinicians should consider the patient’s level of distress, functional impairment, and relevant psychosocial context when interpreting scores.

The GAD-7 can be easily added to any Creyos Health protocol for seamless integration with other behavioral or cognitive health assessments. For detailed scoring guidance and best practices, see the official GAD-7 instruction manual.

To explore all behavioral and cognitive health tools available in the Creyos platform, refer to the Creyos Standardized Questionnaires Guide.