45 Survey questions for a depression questionnaire (+templates)

Maintaining mental health is important, and depression is a big problem in the modern world. With the highly developed technological world, humankind keeps getting lonelier day by day. For this reason, diagnosing depression has become important, and a depression questionnaire can help professionals as a powerful tool. It makes it easier to gather data from patients using depression survey questions.

Since it is so important to gather data from clients with depression test questions, in this article, we cover what a depression questionnaire is, how to create an online depression questionnaire, and 45 great survey questions examples to use in your depression questionnaire. So if you are a mental health professional or want to create a questionnaire about depression, you can use this article as a go-to guide.

What is a depression questionnaire?

A depression questionary is a way of assessing the severity of depressive symptoms associated with depression. Even though it can help professionals, individuals also self-measure their depression with surveys. Although it cannot give definite answers to measuring depression, it can be a helpful tool. 

It can consist of a series of questions related to their feelings, appetite, sleep patterns, and other topics, such as their interest in activities. The quality of life is improved by having good mental health and well-being. For this reason, readers should take a step and take action to measure their depression with these helpful questions. 

The definition of depression questionnaire

45 survey question examples to use in your depression questionnaire

Since we are well aware of the necessity of adequate questions as forms.app, we gathered 45 great questions for the survey questionnaire about depression. You can use these questions in your depression research questionnaire to create well-developed and professional surveys. Since there are different types of depression questionnaire examples, these questions are separated into groups with their intended use. Including these questions will give you information about your potential clients and see:

Self-report questionnaires

This type is specifically focused on individual experience. Individuals can measure themselves with questions related to their feelings, symptoms, sadness, loss of interest, and suicidal thoughts. 

SELF-CARE/MOBILITY

1  - Have you experienced physical symptoms such as aches and pains, digestive issues, or changes in appetite?

2  - Have you noticed any changes in your sleep patterns, such as waking up too early or feeling unrested after a full night's sleep?

3  - Do you feel self-conscious or embarrassed about your movement or speech patterns?

4  - Do you feel like your movements or speech are slower than usual or that you have trouble getting your words out?

5  - How frequently did you feel drained of energy over the last two weeks?

USUAL ACTIVITIES

6  - How frequently did you struggle to fall asleep, stay asleep, or oversleep over the previous two weeks?

7  - Have you been crying more or more easily than usual?

8  - How frequently did you find it difficult to focus over the past two weeks on activities like reading the news or watching TV?

9  - Do you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep most nights?

10  - Are there any changes in your sexual desire compared to usual?

ANXIETY/ DEPRESSION

11  - How many times in the last two weeks have you felt dejected, miserable, or hopeless?

12  - How many times in the last two weeks have you felt little interest in or enjoyment from accomplishing things?

13  - How frequently have you felt inferior to yourself, like a failure, or like you have let yourself or your family down over the last two weeks?

14  - Do you consider yourself more impatient than usual?

15  - Have you been feeling self-conscious, like a failure, or having disappointed yourself or your family?

16  - Do you feel guilty about something you have done?

17  - Do you have any recent trust issues in your relationships?

18  - Have you been feeling bad or sad most days, or have you lost interest in activities that you once enjoyed?

19  - Have you had thoughts of self-harm or suicide?

Self-report depression question example

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Observer-Rated Questionnaires

20  - This type of questionnaire can be used by professionals or anyone other than the patient. Typically, they evaluate a variety of symptoms, such as alterations in mood, behavior, and physical health.

21  - Have you felt like your mental health issues are negatively affecting your ability to function at work, school, or in your personal life?

22  - Have you discussed your sleep problems with your primary care physician or another healthcare provider?

23  - Have you received any mental health care in the past year, such as counseling or medication management?

24  - Have you observed any changes in the individual's social functioning or engagement with others over the past week?

25  - Have you observed any changes in the individual's movement or speech patterns, such as slowing down or appearing agitated?

26  - How frequently has the individual reported feeling fatigued or lacking in energy over the past week?

27  - Over the past week, how frequently has the individual exhibited symptoms of sadness, hopelessness, or low mood?

28  - Over the past week, how frequently has the individual exhibited symptoms of irritability or restlessness?

29  - Have you observed any changes in the individual's ability to engage in social or recreational activities over the past week?

30  - Have you observed any changes in the individual's communication patterns or ability to express themselves effectively over the past week?

Observer-rated depression question example

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Suicide risk questionnaires

This type of questionnaire focuses on suicidal intentions or attempts. It should be considered that these questions must be used by professionals but can also help to create awareness. It should be noted that patients may not be aware of their suicidal behavior. For this reason, creating awareness can help to save a life. 

31  - Have you ever considered harming yourself or taking your own life?

32  - Have you thought about dying or getting killed?

33  - Have you ever considered suicide or attempted it before?

34  - Have you cut yourself or burned yourself? Or have you engaged in other self-harming behaviors?

35  - Have you been feeling more agitated, irritable, or anxious lately? Does this make you think about committing suicide?

36  - Have you had a substantial behavioral shift that would point to a possible suicide attempt, such as giving away possessions or saying goodbye to loved ones?

37  - Have your concentration or focus decreased as a result of having suicidal thoughts?

38  - Have you recently gone through a big loss or trauma that could have triggered feelings of hopelessness or thoughts of suicide?

39  - Have you ever felt guilty or unworthy, which could be motivating your suicidal thoughts?

40  - Have you experienced an increase in your use of drugs or alcohol as a way of coping with your depression symptoms?

Suicide risk depression question example

How to create an online depression questionnaire

Creating a depression questionnaire is an easy task with forms.app. You can customize pre-made depression questionnaires or create yours from scratch. You can create well-developed questionnaires using features like conditional logic and a calculator, and in addition to these, you can add multiple layers to your survey with different form fields.  Here are some form fields you can use in your questionnaire to enrich your question variety: 

How to automatically show results on your depression test

forms.app offers a calculator feature that can be used for measurement and showing results. You can give scores to each answer by setting up calculations. By assigning scores to necessary fields, you can get automated results for your depression surveys. Follow these 5 easy steps to use the calculator feature actively:

1  - Switch to the “Calculator” tab.

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2  - Click on a score field of an option on the right side of each option.

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3  - Enter a positive value directly or a negative value

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4  - On the calculation settings, click on “show calculation result” to show people their score

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5  - Lastly, enable “Customize thank you page message” to add ranges and custom messages for people in a certain score range.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is a fact that professionals must use these types of questions. But creating awareness and creating a short and easy way as the first step before professional support can also be helpful. forms.app offers a fast and easy way to create and customize depression questionnaires that focus on different aspects and topics.