Clinical practice · August 11, 2026 · 4 min read
The WHO-5 Well-Being Index: The 90-Second Measure Worth Adding to Every Battery
Scoring the WHO-5, the 50 percent threshold, why wellbeing tracking complements symptom measures, and the 10-point change rule.
Symptom scales measure what's wrong; the WHO-5 measures what's present: five positively phrased items ("I have felt cheerful and in good spirits") over two weeks, each 0-5. Multiply the raw total (0-25) by 4 for a 0-100 percentage. Higher is better.
The thresholds
- 50 or below: screen for depression with a diagnostic instrument — the WHO-5's validated screening role.
- 28 or below: likely depression.
- A 10-point change is considered clinically relevant in either direction.
Why carry a wellbeing measure at all
Two clients can both score 8 on the PHQ-9 while one still laughs weekly and the other feels flat everywhere; the WHO-5 separates them. It also keeps measuring during the recovery tail, when symptom scales floor out at "minimal" but flourishing hasn't returned, exactly the phase where relapse prevention work either sticks or doesn't.
Clients also simply like it: ending a battery on "I woke up feeling fresh and rested" reads differently than ending on self-harm items. Battery sequencing is small clinical design.
Practical pairing
PHQ-9 + WHO-5 at intake and every few sessions gives you a two-line chart, symptoms falling, wellbeing rising, that tells the treatment story better than either line alone.
The WHO-5 is one of PsychApp's 24 built-in instruments, auto-scored as a percentage with direction-aware trends (the chart knows higher is better). Browse the library.
Frequently asked questions
Is the WHO-5 a depression screen?
It's a wellbeing measure with a validated depression-screening threshold: scores at or below 50 percent warrant follow-up with a diagnostic instrument like the PHQ-9.