Assessing somatization with various diagnostic criteria.

Background: Somatization is a widespread clinical phenomenon that cuts across diagnostic categories, both psychiatric and medical.

Objective: This study investigates whether somatization can be assessed with a comprehensive diagnostic system, the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) in gastroenterology and cardiology (myocardial infarction) patients.

Method: Authors assessed a group of 343 outpatients, 190 gastroenterology and 153 cardiology outpatients, with functional gastrointestinal disorders and recent first myocardial infarction.

Results: A total of 146 patients were diagnosed by the DCPR Somatization cluster and 106 by the DCPR Abnormal Illness Behavior cluster; 27 patients who met DSM-IV criteria for somatoform disorders were not classified with any DCPR somatization syndromes, whereas 120 with DCPR Somatization cluster did not satisfy the criteria for DSM-IV somatoform disorders.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that the DCPR is able to identify clinical and subthreshold psychosomatic syndromes and that it can used jointly with the DSM-IV.