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What is a Depression Scale?

Depression scales are instruments that commonly come in the form of questionnaires. These scales aim to gauge the severity of a person’s depression. It’s also worth noting that these aren’t used to diagnose people but to determine if they should be up for diagnosis. These instruments also assign score ranges and designations to help psychologists and related health practitioners assess the course of action to help their patients/clients.

Depression scales come in the following forms:

• Self-assessments issued to patients for them to answer
• Some are used just by the practitioner, and they will simply observe and answer prompts based on their observations
• Some are worked on by both the practitioner and the patient/client

For this particular guide, we’ll be using the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, which comes in the form of a self-assessment!

How to use the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale:

The Zung Self-rating Depression Scale was designed and developed by William W.K. Zung, MD (1929-1992), a psychiatrist from Duke University.

This scale presupposes that your patient has already been diagnosed with depressive disorder. Here are the steps you need to take to complete the depression scale.

Issue the scale to your patient.

The scale is fairly easy to use. You simply need to issue it to your patient and have them rate themselves based on the following prompts:

• I feel downhearted and blue
• Morning is when I feel the best
• I have crying spells or feel like crying
• I have trouble sleeping at night
• I eat as much as I used to
• I still enjoy sex
• I notice that I’m losing weight
• I have trouble with constipation
• My heart beats faster than usual
• I get tired for no reason
• My mind is as clear as it used to be
• I find it easy to do the things I used to
• I am restless and can’t keep still
• I feel hopeful about the future
• I am more irritable than usual
• I find it easy to make decisions
• I feel that I am useful and needed
• My life is pretty full
• I feel that others would be better off if I were dead
• I still enjoy the things I used to do

They will answer themselves by picking one of four answers per item:

• A little of the time
• Some of the time
• Good part of the time
• Most of the time

Tally the score and determine the treatment plan you think your client needs.

This depression scale has score ranges:

• 25-49 = Normal range
• 50-59 = Mildly depressed
• 60-69 = Moderately depressed
• 70-80 = Severely depressed

Once you’ve totaled your patient’s score,  your next step is to determine a suitable treatment plan for them.

Zung Self-rating Depression Scale Example (Sample)

Here’s a filled-out Zung Self-rating Depression Scale example, to help consolidate your understanding of how this resource works.

Download this Zung Self-rating Depression ScaleExample (Sample) here:

When would you typically use the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale?

The Zung Self-rating Depression Scale can be used as soon as you decide to assess your client’s depression severity. The scale presupposes that your patient/client has already been diagnosed with depression, so the goal entails determining what needs to be done to help them.

This also isn’t a one-off thing. Let’s say the patient is already in the middle of a treatment plan. You can reissue the scale regularly to determine whether there are any significant changes.

Reissuing this every now and then will help you determine whether your plan is working and if you need to make any improvements.

Who can use this printable Zung Self-rating Depression Scale?

The following healthcare practitioners can use the Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale for their respective practices:

• (Clinical) psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Psychometricians
• (Mental health) therapists
• Counselors

Why is this assessment popular and useful for psychologists?

It’s straightforward and easy to use.

All that needs to be done from your patient’s end is for them to rate themselves per item. On your end, you simply need to add up the scores. Don’t forget to use the cheat sheet because some items have a negative framing, while some are positive, so answers score differently.

It’ll help you create a treatment plan for your patient.

Since the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale comes with score ranges and designations, the assessment results should help you develop a care plan to treat your patient and help with their depression.

It’s also a good way to monitor your patient!

Issuing this depression scale to your patient doesn’t need to be a one-off. You can reissue this occasionally (the frequency and time between each reissue are up to you). Doing so will help you monitor your patient to see if your treatment plan is working and if you need to adjust it.

What are the benefits of using the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale?

Aside from being useful for psychologists and adjacent practitioners, this depression scale might benefit the patient in a way.

How, you ask? Since this assessment asks the patient to rate themselves, they will look at their life aspects, reminding them about their feelings and what aspects of their life could be better. This could inspire them to focus on things they could work on to help them work through their depression via your treatment plan.

Why use Carepatron for depression software?

Here at Carepatron, we care about helping healthcare practitioners improve productivity and efficiency, especially when streamlining their clinical documentation. By taking advantage of our easy-to-navigate EHR system, you’ll gain access to various depression scale assessments, such as the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale.

Our assessments will help you gauge your patient’s depression severity. These assessments should also aid in helping you determine the next course of care program, whether it’s diagnosing them, deciding what medicine to use, and other actionable steps that may help them work through their condition!

You can even store these assessments in a HIPAA-compliant manner and secure them by setting up who can access these documents besides you.

Not only are our depression software and assessments intuitive, but they’re also easily accessible! Whether using an office desktop, a laptop, or even just your phone, you can access your depression scale assessments anytime, anywhere.