{"id":41107,"date":"2025-08-01T01:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=41107"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:00:21","slug":"utilization-of-phq-9-to-monitor-depression-symptoms-for-adolescents-and-adults-dms-e","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/utilization-of-phq-9-to-monitor-depression-symptoms-for-adolescents-and-adults-dms-e\/","title":{"rendered":"Utilization of PHQ-9 to Monitor Depression Symptoms for Adolescents and Adults (DMS-E)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of persons 12 years of age and older with a diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia who had an outpatient encounter, with a PHQ-9 score present in their record in the same assessment period as the encounter.<\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters?<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting an estimated 120 million people <sup><a href=\"#ref-1\">1<\/a><\/sup>. The lifelong prevalence is estimated to range from 10%\u201315% <sup><a href=\"#ref-2\">2<\/a><\/sup>. In the United States, the 12\u2010month prevalence of MDD is 10.4%, with a lifetime prevalence of 20.6% <sup><a href=\"#ref-3\">3<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Depression is also associated with other chronic medical conditions and increased morbidity and mortality. The mortality risk for suicide in depressed patients is more than 20-fold greater than in the general population <sup><a href=\"#ref-4\">4<\/a><\/sup>. In terms of other chronic conditions, depression is associated with a 60% increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and has been identified as a risk factor for development of cardiovascular disease <sup><a href=\"#ref-5\">5<\/a><\/sup>. In adolescents, depression can also result in serious long-term morbidities such as generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder, or lead to engagement in risky behaviors such as substance use <sup><a href=\"#ref-5\">5<\/a><\/sup>. Adolescent-onset depression increases the risk of attempted suicide by five-fold, compared with nondepressed adolescents. Most adolescents who commit suicide\u2014the third leading cause of death among 15\u201324 year-olds\u2014have a previous history of depression <sup><a href=\"#ref-6\">6<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Depression has large effects on both health care costs and lost productivity. Adolescents with depression have higher medical expenditures, including those related to general and mental health care, than adolescents without a diagnosis of depression <sup><a href=\"#ref-6\">6<\/a><\/sup>. In a survey study, Birnbaum et al. found that MDD severity is significantly associated with increased treatment usage and costs, unemployment, disability and reduced work performance <sup><a href=\"#ref-7\">7<\/a><\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Numerous studies have found that patient outcomes improve when there is collaboration between a primary care doctor, case manager and a mental health specialist to screen for depression, monitor symptoms, provide treatment and refer to specialty care as needed <sup><a href=\"#ref-4\">4<\/a><\/sup>. Standardized instruments are useful in identifying meaningful change in clinical outcomes over time. Guidelines recommend that providers establish and maintain regular follow\u2010up with patients diagnosed with depression and use a standardized tool to track symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\"><i>Adapted with financial support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS) under the CHIPRA Pediatric Quality Measures Program Centers of Excellence grant number U18HS020503, and with permission from the measure developer, Minnesota Community Measurement.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of persons 12 years of age and older with a diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia who had an outpatient encounter, with a PHQ-9 score present in their record in the same assessment period as the encounter. Why It Matters? Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41107","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Utilization of PHQ-9 to Monitor Depression Symptoms for Adolescents and Adults (DMS-E) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Assesses children who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and had 0\u20136 well-child visits with a primary care physician during their first 15 months of life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/utilization-of-phq-9-to-monitor-depression-symptoms-for-adolescents-and-adults-dms-e\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Utilization of PHQ-9 to Monitor Depression Symptoms for Adolescents and Adults (DMS-E) - 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