The depression inventory that costs money is in no payment measure
Beck's inventory has been validated for sixty years. Its current version is sold by Pearson, kits from $122.90 and forms from $3.90 on the day we read the page. The free PHQ-9 is the one written into the rules.
We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: Prices change and are given only as of the read date. Being free is a distribution property, not a validity claim; the BDI-II's psychometrics are strong.
Significant findings
Aaron Beck published his depression inventory in 1961. It is one of the most validated instruments in psychiatry, and its current form, the BDI-II, is a commercial product. On the day we read the publisher's store page, Pearson listed starter and complete kits "from $122.90" and test forms "from $3.90."
That is the whole reason it is not in a payment measure. A regulator or a health plan cannot require a form that every clinic has to buy. The PHQ-9, funded by a Pfizer educational grant and released with "No permission required to reproduce, translate, display or distribute", could be printed on every tablet in the country for nothing. It was.
The same rule sorts the rest of the field. The Epworth sleepiness scale's owners say "A license is needed to use it, whether or not license fees are payable." The PTSD checklist is public domain. The Columbia suicide scale is free for clinics. Free forms became rules; licensed ones became products.
Worth asking
None of this says the free form is worse or the paid one better. It says the form you are handed was chosen for its price as much as its accuracy, and that the company that paid to make one of them free sold the drug it screens for.
Source
An inventory for measuring depression — Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J (1961)
Read the source: https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004
DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004
How this was scored
- Study design
- not recorded
- Funding
- not recorded
- Published in
- not recorded
- Sample size
- not recorded
- Preregistered
- not recorded
- Conflicts disclosed
- not recorded
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
We have not finished checking this source, so there is no scoring to show yet. “We have not checked this yet” and “this is disputed” are different statements, so no scored band is shown rather than a low one.
Read the full scoring rubric, including what it can't tell you.
Published September 17, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
veisund rates this source "not yet assessed". We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. One caveat travels with that badge: Prices change and are given only as of the read date. Being free is a distribution property, not a validity claim; the BDI-II's psychometrics are strong. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
An inventory for measuring depression — Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J (1961). DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004. The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.