The K10 symptom scale is used in the Patient Services - Self Help section of this website, and is available at our www.GPcare.org website. It is a scale of psychological distress developed for use in epidemiological surveys. It is suitable for use as an outcome measure in people with anxiety and depressive disorders.
The 10 item scale has five response categories and the score is the sum of those responses. Scores range from 10 to 50. Eighty eight percent of the population score below 20, they are likely to be well. Ten percent of the population score between 20 and 29. One third of the people scoring 20-24 and two thirds of the people scoring 25-29 are likely to meet criteria for a current mental disorder and when they do, be mildly or moderately disabled. Four out of five people scoring 30 and above will meet criteria for a mental disorder and are likely to be severely disabled.
The scale was developed by R. Kessler, Health Care Policy, Harvard University, Boston (Kessler, Andrews et al 2002) and the normative data are from the Australian Survey of Mental Health and Well-being (Andrews and Slade 2001) - see the research page for the appropriate references and http://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/ncs/k6_scales.php.
