title: A screening test for somatization disorder (hysteria).
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%.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology