Interactive Tool: Are You Depressed?

	What does this tool measure?
	Health Tools
	What does your score mean?
	What's next?
	Credits

Click here to find out whether you may be depressed .

This interactive tool can help you assess your symptoms and find out if you might be depressed. It calculates how many common symptoms of depression you have and suggests where you might fall on a scale from normal to depressed based on your answers.

Although this tool is not for diagnosis, it may help you determine whether you should seek help from your doctor.

Health tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health.

	Interactive tools are designed to help people determine health risks, ideal weight, target heart rate, and more.
	Risk of depression

The more symptoms of depression you have, the higher your score will be. Your score will appear as one of the following ranges:

• You are unlikely to be clinically depressed.
• You may be suffering from mild to moderate depression.
• You may be suffering from major depression.

As with all screening tools, a higher score does not necessarily mean that you are depressed, and a lower score does not necessarily exclude depression. This tool can help you examine your feelings and think about whether your symptoms might be those of depression; however, this is not a substitute for a thorough evaluation by your health professional. If you are concerned about any of your symptoms, seek medical help.

If your symptoms include thoughts or plans involving harming yourself or another person, detachment from reality (psychosis), or excessive use of alcohol or drugs, contact your health professional for help right away.

Many people with depression delay seeking medical advice and treatment because they believe depression is not serious or they think they can get through it, or even beat it, on their own. Sometimes people who are deeply depressed feel that nothing will help. But like other major health problems, depression cannot be overcome without treatment. In fact, untreated depression can worsen, cause other health problems, and may last years or even a lifetime. It can have a serious impact on both you and the people you care about.

With treatment such as counseling and medications, the symptoms of even major depression can begin to improve in a few weeks. The choice to seek evaluation and treatment is an essential first step on the path to feeling better. For more information, see the topic Depression.

Adapted from: Radloff LS (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3): 385–401.