Validation and calibration of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) in Argentina.

Background: The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is a brief tool to assess the presence and severity of depressive symptoms. This study aimed to validate and calibrate the PHQ-9 to determine appropriate cut-off points for different degrees of severity of depression in Argentina.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on an intentional sample of adult ambulatory care patients with different degrees of severity of depression.