GAD-7

The GAD-7 is a short, seven-question form used to screen for and measure generalized anxiety. The letters stand for Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale.

This term is specific to research interpretation and is defined on AnxietyResearch. Shrinktionary, the network's language layer, doesn't currently carry a canonical entry for it.

The GAD-7 asks how often, over the last two weeks, a person was bothered by symptoms such as feeling nervous, not being able to stop worrying, and being easily annoyed. Each item is scored 0 to 3, for a total of 0 to 21. Higher scores mean more anxiety. Rough bands are often used: 5 for mild, 10 for moderate, and 15 for severe.

The GAD-7 is one of the most widely used anxiety measures in both research and ordinary clinics. It's brief, free, and validated. Many anxiety trials use the change in GAD-7 score as a main outcome, and measurement-based care uses it to track progress over time.

A clinic has a patient complete the GAD-7 at each visit. A drop from 16 to 8 over several visits shows a clear, trackable improvement.

The GAD-7 is a screening and tracking tool, not a diagnosis on its own. A high score is a reason for a fuller assessment, not a verdict. It was designed with generalized anxiety in mind, though it's often used more broadly. Research points to a change of roughly 4 points as the rough mark of a noticeable improvement.