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Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)

Understand and manage perceived patient stress with this self-report questionnaire

 

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Benefits for Healthcare Providers

Understanding perceived stress is the first step in managing it. Get comprehensive insights into patients’ stress levels today and over time with Creyos.


One Platform

One Platform, One View

Administer the PSS questionnaire and get real-time results in an automated report alongside other questionnaires and cognitive assessment scores.

Access to Care

Increased Access to Care

Give patients the option to complete the PSS questionnaire in person or from the comfort of home to improve access to assessment. 

back by science

Backed by Science

Gain peace of mind that all Creyos Health assessments are supported by our commitment to scientific validity and rigorous research.

Discover the Relationship Between Stress and Cognitive Health

Administer the PSS questionnaire through Creyos Health and support better patient outcomes.

Review our guide below for a complete list of standardized questionnaires available in Creyos.

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Stress and Cognition

Preview the Creyos PSS Sample Report

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) offered through Creyos is a 10-question self-assessment that measures a patient’s perception of stress. It offers patients and clinicians:

  • A standardized, reliable, and valuable tool for stress measurement
  • Automated scoring and reporting for easy administration
  • Insight into overall patient well-being over time

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PSS Report

How to Use the PSS Questionnaire

Step 1: Help Patients Prepare

Patients can complete the PSS questionnaire in person through the Creyos Health platform on an in-clinic device or at home through a provided link.

Step 2: Administer Questionnaire

In a series of 10 questions, the PSS questionnaire asks patients to share how often stress-related thoughts or feelings occurred in the past month.

Step 3: Access Automatic Results

Creyos Health automatically scores the patient’s results and provides a report. Scores from 14 to 25 indicate moderate stress and scores above 27 indicate high perceived stress.

Step 4: Reassess and Track

Healthcare providers can discuss results with patients and plan for follow-up assessments to track change over time.

How to use PSS

Not All Stress is Created Equally

Stress is often viewed as a negative part of life, but research shows that it’s not all bad. Rather, it exists on a spectrum from acute to chronic—and depending on where a person’s stress falls, it can have a negative or positive impact on their mental and physical health.

For example, a 2022 study explored the relationship between perceived stress and memory. Researchers analyzed MRI scans of over 1,000 people and found that those who reported low to moderate amounts of stress had increased activity in brain regions involved in working memory. Meanwhile, those who reported high levels of stress showed a decline in neural activity in these brain regions. This suggests that moderate stress can improve cognitive function by stimulating neural activity in key brain areas while prolonged exposure to stress can have detrimental effects on cognitive performance.

Source: Oshri A., Cui Z., Owens M.M., Carvalho C.A., & Sweet L., 2022

Simplify Patient Health Assessments with Creyos Health

Administer the Perceived Stress Scale, digitized behavioral health questionnaires, and online cognitive tasks—all in one place.

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Frequently asked questions

What is perceived stress?

Perceived stress refers to the feelings or thoughts that a person has about how much stress they are experiencing in the moment or over a period of time.

What is the PSS questionnaire?

The PSS asks patients to share how often stress-related thoughts or feelings occurred in the past month. For example, one item asks “In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?”

Where did the PSS questionnaire come from?

The PSS questionnaire was developed in 1983 by Drs. S. Cohen, T. Kamarck, and R. Mermelstein as a way to measure the degree to which a person perceives situations in their life as stressful.

Who uses the PSS questionnaire?

Stress plays a role in almost any mental or physical health condition, as well as in the lives of healthy people looking to optimize their quality of life. PSS scores, then, may be a useful data point for almost any healthcare practitioner—primary care, mental health providers, neurologists and more—even if stress is not the primary subject of interest.

How is the PSS scored?

Patients are prompted with a series of 10 questions relating to feelings of perceived helplessness and lack of self-efficacy. They then respond to each question on a scale of 0 (“Never”) to 4 (“Very often”), and each item is assigned a score from 0 (low stress) to 4 (high stress). The sum of scores is calculated to assess the severity of stress-related symptoms.

How does administration and scoring of the PSS questionnaire work in Creyos?

When a patient completes the PSS questionnaire, providers get immediate insights through easy-to-read reports that combine questionnaire data with cognitive test results for a full picture of patient brain health. Creyos can also use APIs to integrate with a variety of electronic health systems (EHR) and has a built-in integration with athenahealth. Our platform automatically collects, scores, and organizes results from each questionnaire and adds them to the patient’s EHR.

What symptoms does the PSS evaluate?

The PSS questionnaire considers symptoms of stress.

How can the PSS questionnaire support patients?

The PSS questionnaire should be used as a screening tool to assist primary care providers or mental health professionals in understanding symptoms of stress and monitoring symptom severity over time. 

Any conclusions drawn from the PSS should be paired with further assessment, such as clinical interviews and observations, additional mental health examinations or assessments, and evaluations of the patient’s level of distress, functional impairment, and/or family history.

What can the PSS not do?

Scores on the PSS questionnaire do not suggest a particular diagnosis or course of treatment, but are meant as an aid to quantify a patient’s level of perceived stress and measure improvement over time.

How is stress related to brain health?

For example, a key validation metric for the PSS is its relationship with anxiety and depression. Baik et al., 2017, found strong correlations between scores on the PSS and scores on the GAD-7 and PHQ-9, which are also available in CBS Health to measure anxiety and depression, respectively. Stress plays a role outside of mental health practices as well, as it is a risk factor for recovery or quality of life in many physical health conditions, such as exacerbation of multiple sclerosis (Mohr et al., 2004). Stress can also increase the risk of developing infectious disease (Glaser & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2005)—a particularly relevant link in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Treatments from healthcare providers may affect more than one type of symptom. By collecting baseline, before-and-after, and longitudinal PSS scores alongside other health metrics and CBS cognitive function results, providers can get a full picture of the causes of patient concerns and the full effects of treatment.

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