Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 Scale
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Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge Not at all Several days More than half the days Nearly every day
Not being able to stop or control worrying Not at all Several days More than half the days Nearly every day
R e s u l t s
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GAD-2 scale score
 
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 Scale

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) scale is a useful screening tool for all 4 anxiety disorders.

The 4 Anxiety Disorders are:

  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  • Panic Disorder
  • Social Anxiety Disorder
  • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The GAD-2, which contains the 2 core anxiety symptom questions from the GAD-7 scale, has high sensitivity and specificity for detecting the presence anxiety disorders. This screening tool has been shown useful in the primary care setting.

The GAD-2 Scale consists of 2 questions, each of which can receive a score from 0 to 3; corresponding to a summed possible score range of 0-6.

The patient is asked "Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by the following problems?"

The 2 questions are:

  1. Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge
  2. Not being able to stop or control worrying

Each of the 2 questions is scored as:

  • 0 pts "Not at all"
  • 1 pt "Several days"
  • 2 pts "More than half the days"
  • 3 pts "Nearly every day"

Interpretation (points from the 2 questions are summed):

Points Interpretation
0 or 1 Probably normal
>= 2 70% were found to have an anxiety disorder
>= 3 88% were found to have an anxiety disorder

A cutoff score of 3 optimized sensitivity and specificity (65% and 88% respectively) in one large trial. Using a cutoff of 2, sensitivity is improved to 86%, but specificity decreases to 70%.

Reference:

  • Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB, et al. Anxiety disorders in primary care: prevalence, impairment, comorbidity, and detection. Ann Intern Med. 2007;146(5):317-25.
  • Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JB, et al. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(10):1092-7.