Costantini L Pasquarella C Odone A Colucci ME Costanza A Serafini G Aguglia A Belvederi Murri M Brakoulias V Amore M Ghaemi SN Amerio A 2020 BACKGROUND Depression is a leading cause of disability. International guidelines recommend screening for depression and the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) has been identified as the most reliable screening tool. We reviewed the evidence for using it within the primary care setting. METHODS We retrieved studies from MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library that carried out primary care-based depression screening using PHQ-9 in populations older than 12, from 1995 to 2018. RESULTS Forty-two studies were included in the systematic review. Most of the studies were cross-sectional (N=40, 95%), conducted in high-income countries (N=27, 71%) and recruited adult populations (N=38, 90%). The accuracy of the PHQ-9 was evaluated in 31 (74%) studies with a two-stage screening system, with structured interview most often carried out by primary care and mental health professionals. Most of the studies employed a cut-off score of 10 (N=24, 57%, total range 5 - 15). The overall sensitivity of PHQ-9 ranged from 0.37 to 0.98, specificity from 0.42 to 0.99, positive predictive value from 0.09 to 0.92, and negative predictive value from 0.8 to 1. LIMITATIONS Lack of longitudinal studies, small sample size, and the heterogeneity of primary-care settings limited the generalizability of our results. CONCLUSIONS PHQ-9 has been widely validated and is recommended in a two-stage screening process. Longitudinal studies are necessary to provide evidence of long-term screening effectiveness. https://sonar.ch/global/documents/70337 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.131 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/33126078 Journal of affective disorders. - 2020 PHQ-9 depression primary care screening Screening for depression in primary care with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9): A systematic review. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501