OBJECTIVE: To evaluate psychological characteristics that could be used for the classification of somatic syndromes requesting medical care. Positive psychological classification criteria are needed to justify the classification of somatic syndromes as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders- or International Classification of Diseases-10 section F/mental disorders diagnosis. METHODS: From a population-based sample of 2510 people, subsamples reporting high scores for somatic symptoms (SOM+; n = 154) versus average scores for somatic symptoms (SOM-; n = 167) were defined. Telephone interviews (e.g., structured interviews for diagnoses, healthcare use, symptom history, possible psychological characteristics), self-rating scales (e.g., Pain Disability Index, depression scale Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and general practitioners reports were collected for these subsamples. In addition to somatic symptoms, we used healthcare use and disability as major external validation criteria. RESULTS: There was strong evidence for ten of the 28 binary coded psychological variables to identify those people with somatic symptoms who needed medical help and/or were seriously disabled. These variables included "avoidance of physical activities," "bias for somatic illness attributions," "self-concept of being physically weak," and "desperation because of somatic symptoms." The relevance of these psychological characteristics was partially further confirmed by stepwise regression analyses, which showed incremental validity compared with variables like somatic symptoms and depression. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified several psychological characteristics of people with somatic complaints who need medical care. These features can be assessed, using binary variables that are more feasible for classification processes. These psychological criteria should be included in classification rules for people with somatic syndromes (e.g., somatoform disorders).
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机译：目的：评估可用于分类需要医疗的躯体综合症的心理特征。需要积极的心理分类标准来证明将躯体综合症分类为《精神障碍诊断和统计手册》或《国际疾病分类》第10节F /精神障碍诊断。方法：从2510人的基于人口的样本中，定义了子样本报告的躯体症状得分高（SOM +; n = 154），而躯体症状的平均得分是SOM-; n = 167。为这些子样本收集了电话访谈（例如，用于结构性访谈，诊断，医疗保健使用，症状史，可能的心理特征），自我评估量表（例如，疼痛残疾指数，抑郁量表“患者健康问卷” -9）和全科医生报告。 。除躯体症状外，我们还将医疗保健使用和残疾作为主要的外部验证标准。结果：有强有力的证据表明，在28种二进制编码的心理变量中，有10种可以识别那些需要医疗帮助和/或严重残疾的躯体症状患者。这些变量包括“避免进行体育活动”，“对身体疾病归因的偏见”，“身体虚弱的自我概念”和“由于躯体症状而绝望”。这些心理特征的相关性已通过逐步回归分析得到了进一步证实，逐步回归分析与躯体症状和抑郁等变量相比显示出增加的有效性。结论：本研究确定了需要医疗护理的身体不适患者的几种心理特征。可以使用对分类过程更可行的二进制变量来评估这些功能。这些心理标准应包括在躯体综合症（例如躯体形式障碍）患者的分类规则中。
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