Name two commonly used outcome measures in CBT for mood and anxiety disorders.

• A. PHQ-9 and GAD-7
• B. MMPI-2 and WAIS
• C. Rorschach and TAT
• D. Sleep Quality Index and Visual Analog Mood Scale

Answer: (A)

Focusing on efficient, reliable tracking of change in core mood and anxiety symptoms. The PHQ-9 is a 9-item self-report scale that measures depressive symptom severity over the past two weeks; it’s brief, widely validated, and highly responsive to treatment, making it a staple for monitoring how depressive symptoms improve during CBT. The GAD-7 is a 7-item self-report scale for generalized anxiety symptoms, with strong reliability and validity and clear guidelines for interpreting severity and change over time. Using these two together gives a practical, symptom-centered view of a client’s progress across sessions and helps guide therapeutic decisions, such as intensifying exposure work or adjusting cognitive strategies.

Other options aren’t as well suited for routine CBT outcome tracking. Comprehensive personality or cognitive ability tests (like MMPI-2 or WAIS) assess broad constructs and aren’t designed to sensitively monitor short-term symptom change in mood or anxiety. Projective tests (Rorschach, TAT) have limited reliability for tracking treatment response and aren’t standard outcome measures. While Sleep Quality Index or a Visual Analog Mood Scale can be informative in some contexts, they don’t offer the same established utility and standardized change metrics as the PHQ-9 and GAD-7.