A new study found that a widely used depression screening questionnaire is accurate for people with and without chronic pain, debunking a common misconception that the screening inflates depression scores for people with chronic pain.
Some clinicians and researchers believed a person with chronic pain might score higher on the eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire, or PHQ-8, because they can't sleep or experience fatigue, which are symptoms of both pain and depression.
Journal of Affective Disorders
Data/statistical analysis
People
Do somatic symptoms bias depression screening? Reliability and equivalence of PHQ-8 in those with and without chronic pain: A nationally representative study of U.S. adults
15-Jul-2026