A screening test for somatization disorder (hysteria)

Authors:
  • EOE Othmer
    E Othmer
  • CDC DeSouza
    C DeSouza
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Abstract
For the diagnosis of somatization disorder, DSM-III requires the assessment of 37 specific symptoms, a time-consuming and cumbersome task. The authors describe a procedure by which the clinician can assess the presence of somatization disorder by screening for only seven symptoms, three of which must be present for a preliminary diagnosis of somatization disorder. The test was developed on female psychiatric outpatients (N = 85) who had multiple unexplained physical complaints beginning before the age of 30 years; it was validated on an independent sample (N = 47). The accuracy of this screening procedure is 80%-90%.

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