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Check distress over one 30-day period

Answer six frequency questions using the same past-30-days frame. The result is a screening signal, not a diagnosis or safety assessment.

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Answer review
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Psychological distress can show up as nervousness, hopelessness, agitation, low mood, effortfulness, or a sense of worthlessness. These experiences may occur across many mental health and life situations, so measuring their frequency can reveal burden without claiming to identify one diagnosis.

The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, or K6, asks how often six experiences occurred during the past 30 days. It was developed as a brief measure of nonspecific psychological distress, making it useful in personal check-ins, surveys, service intake, and conversations with a qualified professional.

Two cutoffs support different reading purposes. Scores of 5 or more have been studied as a signal of moderate distress and possible treatment need, while 13 or more is the established threshold used to identify serious psychological distress in population reporting. These are screening thresholds, not diagnostic borders.

A high total does not reveal the cause. Bereavement, illness, financial pressure, trauma, sleep disruption, substance use, medication effects, and several mental health conditions can produce similar responses. The answer pattern and real-world impairment provide context that one summed number cannot supply.

A low result also has limits. K6 does not directly assess self-harm, psychosis, mania, violence, or other urgent risks, and it cannot prove that a person is safe. Immediate danger, rapidly worsening symptoms, or inability to cope requires direct local help regardless of the score.

How to Use This Tool:

Use the same past-30-days frame for every question, including days that felt better and days that felt worse.

  1. Rate each of the six experiences from None of the time to All of the time. Choose frequency, not how severe one episode felt.
  2. Answer every item and finish the screener. An incomplete set does not produce a K6 total.
  3. Read the 0 to 24 total beside the markers at 5 and 13, then inspect Answer review to see which experiences contributed most.

Interpreting Results:

A total from 0 to 4 falls in the Lower distress range, 5 to 12 in the Moderate distress range, and 13 to 24 in the Serious distress range. Exactly 5 enters Moderate, and exactly 13 enters Serious.

Use the range to judge the urgency of follow-up, not to name a disorder. Scores at or above 5 support closer attention to symptoms and functioning. A score at or above 13 supports timely qualified assessment, while urgent safety concerns always take precedence over the total.

The same score can arise from six moderate responses or from a few intense responses. Review the item pattern and changes in sleep, work, relationships, self-care, or coping before deciding what the result means.

Technical Details:

K6 uses six equally weighted frequency items. Each response contributes an integer from 0 to 4, and all six items must be present. No item is reverse-scored, imputed, normalized, or weighted differently.

Formula Core:

The total is the direct sum of the six response values.

K= ∑i=16 ri with 0≤K≤24
Frequency responseContribution
None of the time0
A little of the time1
Some of the time2
Most of the time3
All of the time4

Responses of 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, and 1 sum to 12 and remain in the Moderate distress range. Raising the final contribution from 1 to 2 produces 13, which enters the Serious distress range. The result is an integer, so no rounding is applied.

Rule Core:

The thresholds are inclusive at their lower edge and exhaust the full 0 to 24 score range.

ScoreRange labelReading
0 to 4Lower distress rangeBelow the moderate-distress cutoff; not a safety clearance.
5 to 12Moderate distress rangeAt or above the moderate-distress cutoff.
13 to 24Serious distress rangeAt or above the serious-distress threshold used in population reporting.

Limitations and Privacy:

K6 is an adult self-report screen for nonspecific distress. It does not diagnose a condition, select treatment, establish fitness or eligibility, explain the cause of symptoms, or replace direct assessment of urgent risk. Recall, language, current circumstances, and willingness to disclose can affect the total.

  • Responses stay in browser memory during the session, with no declared telemetry or automatic URL syncing.
  • Restarting clears the in-memory K6 session and its response fragment.
  • A copied share link contains all six raw responses in an encoded URL fragment. It is not encrypted or access-controlled.
  • Contact local emergency or crisis support when there may be immediate danger; do not wait for a screening threshold.

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