Depression is being overdiagnosed because GPs are too reliant on a “basic” questionnaire designed by a pharmaceutical company which also manufacturers psychiatric drugs, campaigners have warned.
The easy-to-use nine-question form sets the threshold for the condition “far too low” and results in patients being wrongly diagnosed and medicated, according an expert at the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry. The PHQ-9 Patient Health Questionnaire was developed by academics funded by Pfizer, which owned the intellectual property and distribution rights. For most of the last 20 years, a chart will have been present in virtually every GP consulting room.
