Why I’m thankful that Atos found me fit to work

I was signed off work five years ago. I had lost my job and was, unsurprisingly, feeling low; I went to see my GP, as I was having difficulty sleeping. Rather than dishing out a few sleeping pills, as I had hoped, my doctor googled the letters PHQ-9 on his computer and quickly went through the multiple-choice test for depression he found. Within a few minutes, I walked out of the surgery with a diagnosis of depression and a sick note stating that I was, in his medical judgment, unfit for work. Looking at the Patient Health Questionnaire now, one thing immediately stands out: the copyright notice. The copyright in PHQ-9 was held by Pfizer, the pharmaceutical corporation — which, since it holds patents in antidepressants such as Zoloft, has a financial incentive in patients’ being diagnosed with depression. But it would be unfair to criticise PHQ-9 merely because it was developed for a private company; not when there are so many other criticisms to make.