GAD-7 Anxiety Screening

The GAD-7 Anxiety Screening form digitizes the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale, a brief, validated screening instrument for assessing the severity of generalized anxiety. Like the PHQ-9 for depression, the GAD-7 has become the standard anxiety screening tool in primary care, behavioral health, and clinical research settings.

The seven items assess the frequency of anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks on a 0-3 scale: feeling nervous or anxious, uncontrollable worrying, worrying too much, trouble relaxing, restlessness, irritability, and feeling afraid. The digital format auto-calculates the total score and maps it to severity levels: minimal (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10-14), and severe (15-21).

Clinical decision support recommendations are provided based on the score, guiding providers on when to initiate treatment, increase monitoring, or refer to a specialist. Additional context questions capture current anxiety treatment status, medication use, and specific triggers or life stressors. The GAD-7 is also used to screen for social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and PTSD when combined with supplementary questions. This template meets USPSTF recommendations for anxiety screening in adults.