Clinical utility of the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research for a comprehensive assessment of the elderly

INTRODUCTION: According to the revised version of the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR-R), this study explored the prevalence and clinical correlates of DCPR-R psychosomatic syndromes in the elderly and tested whether DCPR-R provide an incremental contribution to the prediction of psychosocial functioning over and above DSM-5.

METHOD: One hundred seven elderly subjects were recruited. Participants received a clinical assessment, which included the DCPR-Revised Semi-Structured Interview (DCPR-R SSI), the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5-Clinician Version (SCID-5-CV), the Psychological Well-Being (PWB) Scales, the Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) and hierarchical regression analyses were run.

RESULTS: Twenty-two (20.6%) subjects had at least one DSM-5 diagnosis, and 62 (57.9%) reported at least one DCPR-R diagnosis. Subjects with at least one DCPR-R diagnosis showed lower PWB Personal Growth and PWB Purpose in Life than those without DCPR-R diagnoses. When the incremental validity of the DCPR-R was tested using PWB Personal Growth, PWB Purpose in Life, PWB Self-acceptance, GAS Cognitive symptoms and GAS affective symptoms subscales as criterion variable, the DCPR-R increased up to 0.135-0.263 the explained variance.

CONCLUSION: The DCPR-R might be implemented together with the DSM-5 to have a comprehensive assessment of elderly subjects.