Free K10 Psychological Distress Test — Online Self-Check

Your K10 score in context

The K10 is a snapshot of the past 30 days, not a fixed assessment of who you are. Psychological distress is responsive to circumstance — a difficult month at work, a bereavement, a health scare, a relationship rupture can all push a score meaningfully upward during the window you happened to take the screen. That does not make the reading unreliable; it makes the context around it relevant. If you took this screen at a genuinely heavy point, the number may sit higher than your recent average. If the 30 days behind you were unusually settled, it may sit lower. The K10's 30-day recall window was designed to balance two competing needs: long enough to smooth out single bad days, short enough to detect change before a difficult pattern becomes entrenched.

When you retake the K10, the number that matters is the change. The clinical literature uses around 5 points as the threshold for a clinically meaningful shift on this instrument. Score swings of 2 or 3 points between readings typically fall within normal variation and do not reliably signal that something has improved or worsened. A change of 5 or more points, in either direction, is worth paying attention to and worth mentioning to a clinician if one is involved.

The K10 was designed for repeated administration at intervals matched to its 30-day recall window — every 4 weeks is the natural cadence. Retesting more often produces noise; the 30-day window has not had time to update. Retesting much less often loses the instrument's tracking sensitivity. If you are working with a clinician, they will typically look at K10 scores over several administrations rather than making clinical decisions off a single result. A single high score is information; a sustained pattern across multiple administrations is a different and stronger signal.

How to bring this to a clinician

The K10 is one of the most widely deployed brief distress screens in the world, used by primary care services in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, parts of Canada, and increasingly in US integrated behavioral health programs. Most primary-care clinicians and mental-health professionals will recognize the K10 immediately and know how to read the canonical 10–50 score. You do not need to explain what it is — bringing the score gives the conversation a concrete starting point.

What to bring:

• The total score on the canonical 10–50 scale (the number shown on your result above)
• Which items felt heaviest for you — the item pattern tells a clinician more than the total alone. K10 items distribute across what researchers call an anxiety facet (items about feeling nervous, restless, fidgety) and a depression facet (items about feeling hopeless, depressed, worthless, that everything was an effort); which side dominated for you is useful clinical information
• How long the distress at this level has been present (best guess in weeks or months) — a recent shift and a long-running pattern need different responses
• Any major recent life events — bereavement, relationship change, job loss, health diagnosis, major financial shift — that might be contributing
• Any medication, substance, or medical change — including alcohol, cannabis, stimulants, thyroid medication, hormonal changes, or sleep changes — that started in roughly the same window

A two-line opening you can use as-is:

I took the K10 at home and scored [X] on the 10–50 scale. The items that felt heaviest were [item descriptions]. I'd like to talk about what to do next.

Most clinicians will follow up by asking about sleep, energy, concentration, recent changes in interest or motivation, any thoughts of self-harm, and how distress is affecting work, relationships, or daily responsibilities. They may also ask about specific patterns the K10 captures less directly — panic episodes, intrusive memories, food-related distress, alcohol or substance use — to fill in gaps the broad K10 score does not address. Mentioning these areas upfront, even briefly, can shorten the appointment and get you to a concrete plan faster than open-ended descriptions. A clinician may also suggest a more targeted second screen (the PHQ-9 for depression, the GAD-7 for anxiety) depending on what your K10 item pattern suggests.

You can print this page or save it as PDF using your browser's print menu — the result, score, and items all carry through.

If you're reading this with someone who took the test

If you are a partner, parent, sibling, or close friend reading this result alongside the person who took the test, this section is addressed to you. Psychological distress is one of the most commonly hidden mental-health presentations — by the time someone takes a K10, they may have been managing the underlying feelings privately for weeks or months that people around them did not fully see. The score gives you a concrete starting point for a conversation that can otherwise be hard to begin. Ask them directly what they want from you before drawing your own conclusions from the number. Different people in distress want different kinds of support, and a score does not tell you which they need.

Three things that consistently help: showing up steady and present, without trying to fix the feelings or argue them away. Distress does not respond to logical rebuttals; pointing out that things will get better, or that they have so much to be grateful for, tends to land as dismissive even when it is meant kindly. Practical help with tasks that distress has made hard — driving them to an appointment, sitting with them through a phone call they cannot bring themselves to make, handling a logistics pile that has become overwhelming, picking up groceries or making a meal — meets the moment in a way words often cannot. And asking, calmly and without alarm, what would be most useful right now: companionship, quiet, help with a specific task, or just knowing you are there if needed.

Three things that tend not to help: telling them to think positive, cheer up, or look on the bright side (this signals that the distress is the problem rather than what is producing it); drawing comparisons to your own difficulties or someone else who has managed harder things (this lands as a competition the person in distress cannot win); and offering have you tried suggestions for things they almost certainly have already considered. The person who took this screen has been thinking about how they feel for some time.

One situation calls for specific preparation: if they mention thoughts of suicide or self-harm — even passively, in the form of not wanting to be here or wishing they could just stop — that is information to take seriously rather than redirect away from. The most useful response is to stay calm, ask gently whether they have any specific plans or means available, and help them connect with support today. Suggesting they call or text 988 (US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, free and confidential) while you sit with them is a concrete next step. If they feel unsafe or you feel they may not stay safe, an emergency department visit is appropriate. Asking about suicidal thoughts does not put the idea in someone's head; it makes it possible for them to talk about something they may have been carrying alone.

If distress has started to significantly compress their life — withdrawal that has become near-total, inability to get to work, unable to manage basic self-care — helping them schedule and keep the first clinical appointment is one of the most concrete, high-leverage things you can do. Getting to the room is often the hardest single step.

Other screens you might also take

The K10 measures non-specific psychological distress. If your K10 score is elevated, a more targeted screen can help clarify the specific pattern, which often guides what kind of support is most useful.