Week 3: Learning the Methodology

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! My third week was a huge success! I am happy to finally say that I will be doing my onsite section of the project at Small Brooklyn Psychology. This has taken a long time, so I am glad to have finally secured this placement. I have also made significant progress in my independent research. 

First off, I read the article “The GAD-7 Questionnaire” along with “Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) in Outpatients with Anxiety and Mood Disorders.” Both of these documents enhanced my understanding of the GAD-7. The most important topics covered were what the GAD-7 is, which I can explain as a self-report questionnaire designed to assess a patient’s mental health status based on the previous 2 weeks. Below is an image of the questionnaire:

As you can see, when taking the questionnaire, you give each category a number from 0 to 3. Your scores are then totaled and presented from 0 to 21. Scores of 5, 10, and 15 represent individual cut-off points for mild, moderate, and severe anxiety. Further evaluation is recommended for scores of 10 or greater when screening for the disorder. 1

It is proven to be quite reliable as a resource to evaluate if someone is struggling with GAD or even with other anxiety disorders. Along with enhancing my learning about the GAD-7, I learned about the ICD-10 as well. Essentially, the ICD-10 provides diagnostic criteria for mental illnesses and is often used with the DSM-V to characterize what someone is struggling with.

Lastly, I have begun rolling out my questionnaire to the general public. I am happy to report that I have already gotten a variety of responses, ranging from individuals who are well-versed in the field to even those who are hearing about words like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for the first time. As I wait for more people to answer the questionnaire, I will begin aggregating the responses to find a common idea thus far. 

Over the next week, I will investigate the statistics for test accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, false positive rates, false negative rates, test accuracy rate) among the GAD-7 questionnaire and the ICD-10, finish reading “Current theoretical models of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): Conceptual Review and Treatment Implications,” and I will hopefully begin my onsite placement. Thank you for reading my blog, and I will update you all next week!

Citations:

1: Nerys Williams, The GAD-7 Questionnaire, Occupational Medicine, Volume 64, Issue 3, April 2014, Page 224, https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqt161 

2: Rutter, L. A., & Brown, T. A. (2017). Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) in Outpatients with Anxiety and Mood Disorders. Journal of psychopathology and behavioral assessment, 39(1), 140–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9571-9 Nerys Williams, The GAD-7 Questionnaire, Occupational Medicine, Volume 64, Issue 3, April 2014, Page 224, https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqt161. 

Link for photo: https://therapymeetsnumbers.com/made-to-measure-gad-7/