Somatic Complaints in Primary Care: Further Examining the Validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15)

• Published in: Psychosomatics (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 47; no. 5; pp. 392 - 398
• Main Authors: Interian, Alejandro, Allen, Lesley A., Gara, Michael A., Escobar, Javier I., Díaz-Martínez, Angélica M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Elsevier Inc 01-09-2006; American Psychiatric Press; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Diagnosis, Differential; Female; Health Status; Hispanic Americans - psychology; Humans; Interview, Psychological; Male; Medical sciences; Predictive Value of Tests; Primary Health Care - methods; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics - instrumentation; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Severity of Illness Index; Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis; Somatoform Disorders - ethnology; Somatoform Disorders - psychology; Somatoform disorders. Psychosomatics; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Human; Somatic complaint; Psychometrics; Questionnaire; Primary health care; Public health
• ISSN: 0033-3182; 1545-7206
• DOI: 10.1176/appi.psy.47.5.392

The authors examined the reliability and validity of the PHQ-15, a measure of current somatic complaints. An index of medically unexplained symptoms was used as a key criterion. Data were utilized from medical outpatients enrolled in a treatment study for moderate-to-severe somatization (N
=
172). Approximately 68% of the sample was Hispanic. Results showed that the PHQ-15 was moderately related to a history of medically unexplained symptoms among non-Hispanic participants. Results indicated ethnic differences on the validity profile of the PHQ-15 showing that the criterion variables were less predictive of the PHQ-15 among Hispanics than among non-Hispanics. Also, among the Hispanic group, the PHQ-15 was less related to medically unexplained symptoms and more to psychiatric distress. General support was provided for using the PHQ-15 with clinical samples composed of non-Hispanics. Also, the PHQ-15 appears to measure medically unexplained symptoms, psychiatric distress, and physical functioning. Further study is recommended to better evaluate ethnic variations and other types of validity for the PHQ-15.