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Multisomatoform Disorder: Agreement Between Patient and Physician Report of Criterion Symptom Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Abstract

Objective

To determine the level of agreement between patients and expert physicians in whether criterion multisomatoform (MSD) symptoms are explained.

Methods

We systematically collected reports from 280 primary care patients about whether they had suffered from any of 15 criterion MSD symptoms in the past month and whether they had received a medical explanation from a physician for positive criterion symptoms. The research team compared MSD symptom diagnoses derived from patient report with MSD symptom diagnoses derived from an expert physician report.

Results

MSD symptom diagnoses derived from patient report had 98.7% sensitivity, 97.9% specificity, 89.3% positive predictive value, and 99.7% negative predictive value compared with MSD symptom diagnoses derived from an expert physician report. Analysis demonstrated that 15.0% of patients met symptom criteria for MSD, according to patient and physician report; 83.0% failed to meet symptom criteria for MSD, according to patient and physician report; 1.8% of patients met symptom criteria for MSD, according to patient report but not physician report, while 0.2% met symptom criteria for MSD according to physician report but not by patient report.

Conclusion

Patients demonstrated high agreement with a physician expert in somatization about whether criterion MSD symptoms are explained, suggesting revised screeners may accurately identify somatizing patients.

Type
Original Research
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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