General distress, wellbeing and treatment outcomes
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)
Measure nonspecific psychological distress; support clinical assessment and longitudinal monitoring.
Reference information · Questionnaire
- Last content update
- 2026-10-26
- Clinical review
- Not independently reviewed
- Source jurisdiction
- See individual sources
- Coverage
- Questionnaire
| Field | Instrument context |
|---|---|
| Version | Core self-administered English; 30-day recall; 0–4 scoring |
| Population | Adults; nonspecific psychological distress screening. Interpretation must use evidence applicable to the assessed population. |
| Respondent | self |
| Recall period | Past 30 days |
| Purpose | Measure nonspecific psychological distress; support clinical assessment and longitudinal monitoring. |
Assessment tool
A total does not establish individual item responses.
The following questions ask about how you have been feeling during the past 30 days. For each question, please indicate the answer that best describes how often you had this feeling. Select one response per question. Core question wording and response labels are retained; paper numbering is converted to 0–4 score values.
Responses stay in this page’s memory. Reset or leave the page to clear them. No patient identifiers are collected.
Interpretation & limitations
- Higher totals indicate more frequent nonspecific psychological distress.
- This implementation uses 0–4 scoring: None of the time=0; All of the time=4. Do not apply 1–5 scoring thresholds directly.
- No universal severity categories are assigned. Interpret in the context of the population, setting and clinical assessment.
- Copyright © Ronald C. Kessler, PhD. 2003. All rights reserved. Based on the Composite International Diagnostic Interview © 2001 Ronald C. Kessler, PhD. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
- Citation: Kessler RC, Barker PR, Colpe LJ, et al. Screening for serious mental illness in the general population. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2003;60(2):184–189.
- A screening score cannot establish a diagnosis or exclude mental illness.
- Treatment can reduce current distress while an underlying condition persists.
- All core responses are required here; no missing-response imputation is implemented. This is an application completeness rule, not an author-mandated missing-data standard.
- Only the core scored questions are included. Supplementary persistence, impairment and service-use questions in the K6+/K10+ source are not required for scoring and are omitted.
References · 3
- Author permissions and background · Author states use is free and requires no formal permission or approval; retain copyright and cite Kessler et al. (2003).
- Official self-administered K10+ source
- Author scoring FAQ