Generalized Anxiety Disorder - GAD-7

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 02, 2021

Last Modified: January 04, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a computerized version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire by Spitzer et al (2006).

References

Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Lowe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder - The GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166, 1092-1097.

Duration

0.5 minutes

Description

The scale consists of 7 4-point Likert scale items. The script provides one TotalScore to screen for Generalized Anxiety.

Summary Data

File Name: gad_7_summary.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
computer.touch 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
gad7TotalScore Total Score (Range: 0 - 21)
Spitzer et al (2006, p.1095)
"A score of 10 or greater on the GAD-7 represents a reasonable cut point for identifying cases of
GAD. Cut points of 5, 10, and 15 might be interpreted
as representing mild, moderate, and severe levels of anxiety
on the GAD-7 [...]"

Raw Data

File Name: gad_7.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
build Inquisit version number
q*_response Response given (in assigned values)
Scale: q1-q7: 0 (Not at all) - 3 (Nearly every day)
Scale: q8: 0 (Not difficult at all) - 3 (Extremely difficult)
q8 is only presented if participant has indicated any
possible response > 0 for any of the seven questions. If
all responses = 0, q8 is automatically scored as 0
q*_latency How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular
question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited