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The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale 10 (K10) is a 10-question screening scale of psychological distress. This is intended to yield a global measure of distress based on questions about anxiety and depressive symptoms that a person has experienced in the most recent 4 week period. The scale was designed to be sensitive around the threshold for the clinically significant range of the distribution of nonspecific distress in an effort to maximize the ability to discriminate cases of serious mental illness (SMI) from non-cases.
You can create a free account on PsyPack to access fillable PDFs, manuals and educational resources for the K10
The K10 scoring system is based on responses of “1-5” (where 5= ”all of the time” and 1= ”none of the time”) and the scores are summed. This system results in a score range of 10-50 for the K10.
Please note that the question is presented to respondents in the order of highest frequency to none, but for scoring, you should recode, so that 1 indicates no stress and 5 indicates high stress.
K10 Score and Likelihood of having a mental disorder (psychological distress)
| K10 Score | Likelihood of having a mental disorder (psychological distress) |
|---|---|
10-19 | Likely to be well |
20-24 | Likely to have a mild disorder |
25–29 | Likely to have a moderate disorder |
30–50 | Likely to have a severe disorder |
PsyPack can automatically score the K10 assessment and prepare corresponding tables and graphs.
Further, PsyPack automatically plots a graph to help you easily track progress over time.
Psychological Distress
The purpose of the evaluation is to:
Self-administered
Clinical
Questionnaire
11 years and above
2 to 3 minutes
Since the questionnaire relies on client self-report, all responses should be verified by the clinician, and a definitive diagnosis is made on clinical grounds taking into account how well the client understood the questionnaire, as well as other relevant information from the client.
This is a screening instrument and practitioners should make a clinical judgement as to whether a person needs treatment.
Scores usually decline with effective treatment. Patients whose scores remain above 24 after treatment should be reviewed and specialist referral considered.
The K10 cannot be used to determine major mental illnesses (such as psychoses) but has been validated as a simple measure of anxiety, depression and worry (psychological distress).
For other questions that are routinely administered along with the scales to learn about persistence and impairment, please refer to Kessler Psychological Distress Scale 10+ (K10+).
For interviewer administration and interview training notes, please refer to Interviewer Administered K10+.
Kessler, R.C., Barker, P.R., Colpe, L.J., Epstein, J.F., Gfroerer, J.C., Hiripi, E., Howes, M.J, Normand, S-L.T., Manderscheid, R.W., Walters, E.E., Zaslavsky, A.M. (2003). Screening for serious mental illness in the general population Archives of General Psychiatry. 60(2), 184-189.