Classification characteristics of the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 for screening somatoform disorders in a primary care setting

Abstract Background This study examines how effectively the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), a self-administered screening instrument, recognizes somatoform symptoms and somatoform disorders in a German primary care setting. Methods A selected sample of 308 patients (mean age 47.2 years, 71.4% women) from two regular primary care practices was screened with the PHQ-15 and additionally examined with structured interviews. Their primary care physicians rated symptoms reported in the interview as either “medically explained” or “medically unexplained.” Results Seventy-six percent of the symptoms were judged as medically unexplained. The PHQ-15 correlated significantly with the total n…