Patient-reported outcome

A patient-reported outcome is a result measured by what the patient says about their own health, rather than by a lab test or a clinician's rating.

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.

Some health outcomes can be measured from the outside, like blood pressure. Anxiety mostly can't. How anxious a person feels is something only they can report. A patient-reported outcome captures that directly, usually through a questionnaire. The GAD-7 is a common patient-reported outcome measure for anxiety.

Almost all anxiety research depends on patient-reported outcomes. That's appropriate, because the patient's experience is the point. It also means anxiety results can be influenced by expectation, which is why blinding and a control group matter so much in anxiety trials.

In a trial, each person fills out a GAD-7 questionnaire every few weeks. The change in their scores is a patient-reported outcome and is the main result of the study.

Patient-reported outcomes are valuable and also sensitive to expectation. A person who knows they received the active treatment may report more improvement. This isn't dishonesty; it's how expectation works. It is one reason an unblinded anxiety trial deserves more caution.