The Geriatric Depression Scale asks older adults 15 yes or no questions about the past week. Each answer that points to depression scores 1, for a total from 0 to 15, and a raised total leads to a follow-up interview. Score it as you answer, see what each band means and which cutoff to use, and record the result with the free template.
GDS-15 result template
FreeGDS-15 GERIATRIC DEPRESSION SCREEN Date: [Date] Patient or resident: [Name or record number, age] Where seen: [Home, clinic, memory clinic, long-term care home, or hospital ward] Given by: [Name and role] ADMINISTRATION Version: [GDS-15 short form, or GDS-30 long form] How given: [Self-completed on paper, read aloud word for word, or answered by pointing on a yes and no board] Aids and language: [Hearing aids and glasses in use; language, translation, or interpreter] Unanswered items: [None, or the item numbers and the prorated total, rounded up] SCORE GDS total: [0 to 15, or 0 to 30 on the long form] Result: [Normal 0 to 4, mild 5 to 8, moderate 9 to 11, or severe 12 to 15] Follow-up cutoff used: [5 or more, or above 5] Items of note: [Depressed answers that stand out, such as worthless, hopeless, helpless, or not glad to be alive] COGNITION AND HEALTH Cognitive status: [Known diagnosis, latest cognitive screen and score, and whether every question was understood] Physical health: [Pain, recent illness, falls, hospital stays, hearing or vision loss] Medicines: [Sedating or mood-lowering medicines, and recent changes] Losses and routine: [Bereavement, a move, lost role or driving, visitors, daily activities] SAFETY Thoughts of death or suicide: [Asked directly; the answer in their own words] Means at home: [Firearms, stored medicines, or none] Eating and self-care: [Intake, weight change, refusing care] PLAN Interview: [Done today with its findings, booked, or not needed] Actions: [Activities and social contact, counseling, medication review or start, geriatric psychiatry referral] Recheck: [Date or interval, same version] Discussed with: [Patient, family, care team] Clinician: [Name, credentials]
Every item as published. The total and what it means update with each answer; nothing you choose leaves this page.
Choose the best answer for how you have felt over the past week:
Use it for
The short form takes about 5 minutes. The person answers yes or no about the past week, on paper or aloud.
Avoid: Explaining or softening the questions as you go, or letting a family member answer for the person. The GDS asks how the person feels, in their own answers.
One point for each answer that points to depression, the answers shown in bold on Stanford’s scoring key.
Avoid: Counting every “Yes”. A contented person gains false points on the five positive items, and a depressed person loses real ones.
The total gives the likely severity. The interview decides whether it’s depression and what is driving it.
Avoid: Writing off a raised score as normal for age or for the setting. Depression is common in later life, but it isn’t a normal part of growing older.
Depression can look like dementia, and the two often occur together, so the GDS is often given next to a cognitive screen.
Avoid: Reading a low score as no depression in someone who can no longer reflect on how they feel.
Repeat the GDS to see whether treatment and changes in daily life are helping.
Each one follows the recording template. Use them to judge how much to write.
Long-term care home, 6 weeks after admission, read aloud by the nurse in the resident’s room
GDS-15, read aloud word for word with her hearing aids in. All 15 items answered, about the past week.
Total 9, moderate. Depressed answers on items 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, and 14. Items of note: feels pretty worthless and feels her situation is hopeless. Answered yes, it is wonderful to be alive now.
82-year-old woman, moved in after a hip fracture in September. Mini-Cog 4 on admission, no dementia diagnosis; answered each question without hesitation. Hip pain 5 out of 10 when walking, uses a walker. Opioid as needed at night, taken most nights. Widowed 2 years; gave up her apartment to move in; her daughter visits on Sundays.
Asked directly: no thoughts of ending her life; she wants to be at her granddaughter’s wedding in May. No stored medicines in her room. Eating about half of each meal; weight down 3% since admission.
Nurse practitioner interview the same day: low mood and lost interest most days since the move; major depressive episode, moderate. Bloodwork for thyroid, B12, sodium, and blood count. Regular acetaminophen to cut night-time opioid use. Weekly counselor visits, morning walking group with the physiotherapist, dietitian review. Sertraline 25 mg daily if the bloodwork is normal, with sodium rechecked 2 weeks after starting. Recheck GDS-15 in 4 weeks; family meeting with her daughter on Sunday.
Memory clinic, first assessment, completed on paper in the waiting room before seeing the geriatrician
GDS-15, filled in on his own with his reading glasses on. All items answered.
Total 3, normal. Depressed answers on items 4, 9, and 10: often bored, prefers to stay at home, more problems with memory than most. Answered no to helpless, worthless, and hopeless.
71-year-old man, retired electrician, referred for 18 months of forgetting names and appointments; his wife confirms the change. MoCA 22 out of 30 today, with most points lost on delayed recall. Still manages money and drives, but now writes everything on a calendar. Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Takes oxybutynin for bladder urgency, an anticholinergic that can dull memory.
Asked directly: no thoughts of death or suicide. Sleeping and eating well, weight steady. Hunting rifles kept in a locked safe; his wife holds the key.
Depression is unlikely to explain the memory change; the boredom and staying home fit with stepping back from tasks he now finds harder. Cognitive workup continues: bloodwork and a brain MRI booked. Letter to his family doctor to stop oxybutynin and review other bladder options. Recheck GDS-15 at the 6-month review, or sooner if his mood drops after the diagnosis is discussed.
Items 1, 5, 7, 11, and 13 are worded positively, so “No” scores the point. Getting them backwards can add up to 5 false points, or hide 5 real ones.
The GDS has no question about suicide. Ask directly whenever the total is raised, hopelessness is endorsed, or you’re worried.
A 10 is mild on the 30-item form but moderate on the 15-item form. Write the version next to every score.
When a person can no longer reflect on their mood, a low score means little. Use a tool built for dementia, with a caregiver’s account.
Pain, thyroid disease, low B12, low sodium, and sedating medicines can all bring on low mood. Check them before calling it depression alone.
Vero Scribe records the GDS-15 result in your template from the visit, with the patient’s consent, or from your dictation: the total, the items of note, cognition, what you asked about safety, and the plan. You review and edit every line, then copy it into your record. Vero works in 60+ languages.
Give 1 point for each answer that suggests depression. On the 15-item short form, that’s “No” to items 1, 5, 7, 11, and 13, and “Yes” to the other ten. Add the points for a total from 0 to 15. If a few items are missing, prorate the total and round up.
On the short form, 0 to 4 is normal, 5 to 8 mild, 9 to 11 moderate, and 12 to 15 severe. Stanford’s scoring key says a score above 5 suggests depression and needs a follow-up interview, and a score above 10 almost always means depression. Many services follow up from 5. The interview makes the diagnosis.
The 30-item long form came first, in the early 1980s. The 15-item short form followed in 1986, using the items that tracked depression most closely. The long form scores 0 to 30, with 0 to 9 normal, 10 to 19 mild, and 20 to 30 severe. The short form takes about 5 minutes and is the one most used in practice.
Both work in older adults. The GDS uses simple yes or no answers and leaves out most bodily symptoms, such as sleep and appetite, which often come from physical illness in later life. The PHQ-9 follows the diagnostic criteria for major depression and asks about thoughts of self-harm, which the GDS doesn’t. Pick one and give it the same way each time.
Yes, in mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia, when the person can follow the questions and answer them. Answers become less reliable as dementia advances. In moderate to severe dementia, the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, which adds a caregiver’s account and the clinician’s observation, is the usual choice.
Any trained member of the care team can give it, including nurses, care aides, social workers, and physicians, or the person can fill it in alone. The short form takes about 5 minutes. A clinician reviews the result and does the follow-up interview.
Yes. It’s in the public domain, so you can copy, print, and translate it without permission. The English forms, the scoring key, and translations are on Dr. Yesavage’s Stanford page. The recording template on this page is free to copy or download too.
Nine questions on the last two weeks: depression screening and severity, scored 0 to 27.
Two questions on interest and mood: a quick first screen for depression, scored 0 to 6.
Seven questions on worry and tension: anxiety screening and severity, scored 0 to 21.
Up to six questions on suicidal thoughts and behavior; the highest yes sets low, moderate, or high risk.
Twenty items on the past month: PTSD screening and symptom tracking, scored 0 to 80.
Three-word recall and a clock, often given next to the GDS.
When the interview turns up thoughts of death or suicide.
Notes for older patients, from clinic visits to care homes.
Every tool, by area, with what its scores mean.
Vero records scores, findings, and plans in the templates you choose, so you review instead of type.
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