Mood
Distress check
6 questions · 2 min
This short questionnaire looks at general emotional distress: how often you’ve felt nervous, hopeless, restless, very low, worn out or worthless over the past month. It’s used in large health surveys around the world.
It doesn’t point to any particular condition. It’s a simple way to see how much you’ve been struggling lately, and whether talking to someone might help.
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What it shows
How much general distress you’ve felt over the past month.
What it doesn’t
A diagnosis of any specific condition.
Who it’s for
This is for you if you’ve been struggling lately but can’t pin down why, or it doesn’t seem to fit one label. It looks at general distress rather than a specific condition, so it’s a gentle place to start.
It’s also useful for checking in once a month, especially through a busy or difficult time. Seeing how your score moves can help you decide when it’s time to talk to someone.
Questions people ask
What does the K6 measure?
General emotional distress over the past 30 days: how often you’ve felt nervous, hopeless, restless, so down that nothing could cheer you up, that everything was an effort, or worthless.
How long does it take?
About two minutes. There are six questions, each answered from “None of the time” to “All of the time”.
How is it scored?
Each answer scores 0 to 4, giving a total from 0 to 24. Higher means more distress. A score of 13 or more is the published threshold researchers use for high distress; anything below that is described as low to moderate.
What’s the difference between the K6 and the K10?
Both come from Ronald Kessler’s team. The K10 has ten questions; the K6 is the shorter six-question version, used in large health surveys around the world.
Is this a diagnosis?
No. It doesn’t point to any specific condition. It shows how much you’ve been struggling lately, and a doctor or other professional is the person who can assess what’s behind it.
What if my score is high, or I feel hopeless?
A doctor or counsellor can help you work out what’s behind how you’ve been feeling, and what might make it easier. If you might hurt yourself, call your local emergency number now; free, confidential helplines: findahelpline.com.
Where it comes from
Developed by Professor Ronald Kessler and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in the early 2000s for national health surveys.
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale
On iPhone or iPad?
Sprout is an app there too, and this link opens the test straight away if you have it.
Coming soon to the App Store