---
name: seasonal-affective-disorder-assessment
description: Use when asked to administer, score, or explain a Seasonal Affective Disorder Assessment — combined SPAQ Global Seasonality Score and PHQ-9 evaluation — grounded in FormExamples/form-examples.
---

# Seasonal Affective Disorder Assessment

Seasonal mood disorder evaluation using SPAQ Global Seasonality Score
(GSS) and PHQ-9 depression severity screening, with combined severity
classification.

## Scoring

**Instruments:** SPAQ GSS (0–24) + PHQ-9 (0–27).

- **SPAQ GSS:** 0–7 No SAD, 8–10 Subsyndromal SAD, 11–24 SAD likely.
- **PHQ-9:** standard depression severity bands (see
  [[mental-health-assessment]]).
- **Combined severity:** No SAD, Mild, Moderate, Severe, or Critical
  (SAD likely with PHQ-9 20–27, or suicidal ideation present).

## What it covers

Demographics; seasonal pattern history; current mood assessment
(PHQ-9); sleep and energy; appetite and weight changes; social and
occupational impact; light exposure assessment; previous treatments;
risk assessment (self-harm); and treatment plan with monitoring.

## Common pitfalls

- **Diagnosing SAD from a single winter assessment without seasonal
  pattern history** — SAD is defined by a recurring seasonal pattern
  over multiple years, not a single depressive episode that happens to
  occur in winter; the seasonal-pattern-history section is what
  actually establishes this.
- **Missing the critical-severity override** — any suicidal ideation
  present should escalate to critical severity regardless of the
  SPAQ/PHQ-9 numeric bands; the combined-severity table explicitly
  carves this out.
- **Treating light exposure assessment as incidental** — light exposure
  (and light therapy as an intervention) is specifically relevant to
  SAD in a way it isn't for non-seasonal depression; skipping it misses
  a core, evidence-based part of the evaluation and treatment plan.

## Learn more

- [FormExamples: seasonal-affective-disorder-assessment](https://github.com/FormExamples/form-examples/tree/main/forms/seasonal-affective-disorder-assessment) for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.
- [[mental-health-assessment]] for the general depression/anxiety screening PHQ-9 is drawn from.