Ma J, Gao HQ, Fan XP, Jian S, Zhao HL, He WL. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale for detecting post-stroke depression in cerebral infarction. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(9): 119271 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.119271]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wen-Long He, Chief Physician, Department of Neuroradiology, Xinxiang Central Hospital, No. 56 Jinsui Avenue, Xinxiang 453000, Henan Province, China. hewl1977@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
research-article
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
Share the Article
Ma J, Gao HQ, Fan XP, Jian S, Zhao HL, He WL. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale for detecting post-stroke depression in cerebral infarction. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(9): 119271 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.119271]
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2026; 16(9): 119271 Published online Sep 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.119271
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale for detecting post-stroke depression in cerebral infarction
Jing Ma, Hui-Qing Gao, Xiao-Peng Fan, Su Jian, Hong-Ling Zhao, Wen-Long He
Jing Ma, Hui-Qing Gao, Su Jian, Hong-Ling Zhao, Wen-Long He, Department of Neuroradiology, Xinxiang Central Hospital, Xinxiang 453000, Henan Province, China
Xiao-Peng Fan, Department of Neurology, Fourth Clinical College, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang 453000, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Ma J and Gao HQ designed the study and coordinated the research; Fan XP conducted statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript; Jian S, Zhao HL, and He WL collected data and performed 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale assessments; all authors reviewed and approved the final version.
Supported by the Henan Provincial Medical Science and Technology Research Joint Venture Project, No. LHGJ20220991 and No. LHGJ20250863.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Xinxiang Central Hospital (approval No. 2025-773).
Informed consent statement: The requirement for written informed consent was waived by the Ethics Committee of Xinxiang Central Hospital (approval No. 2025-773), as this was a retrospective study based on anonymized data extracted from routine clinical records, which involved no additional risk to patients.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: De-identified participant data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Wen-Long He, Chief Physician, Department of Neuroradiology, Xinxiang Central Hospital, No. 56 Jinsui Avenue, Xinxiang 453000, Henan Province, China. hewl1977@126.com
Received: March 3, 2026 Revised: April 15, 2026 Accepted: June 8, 2026 Published online: September 19, 2026 Processing time: 173 Days and 22.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Post-stroke depression is prevalent and often underrecognized in neurological environments. This study directly compares the diagnostic utility of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale clinician-rated and self-administered Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in patients with cerebral infarction, using International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision structured interviews as reference standard. The diagnostic accuracy of both scales was good, and there was no significant difference in the area under the curve values. The best sensitivity and specificity was at a PHQ-9 cutoff score of ≥ 7. Because it is simple and feasible, PHQ-9 might be preferred to assess post-stroke depression in neurology wards for screening alone and then require confirmation by a specialist assessment.
