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Patient reported outcomes have become more and more important in clinical practice and research. Evaluating subjective perceptions of patients has become mandatory for a full assessment of treatment responses. In this context, clinimetrics, the science of clinical measurements, provides unprecedented opportunities for psychosomatic assessment. This volume illustrates how this approach can be translated into everyday practice complementing and improving the medical interview. The most sensitive and reliable clinical methods are presented for evaluating specific psychosocial aspects of disease, i.e. childhood adversities, life events and chronic stress, lifestyle, sexual function, subclinical and affective disturbances, personality, illness behavior, well-being and family dynamics. Each chapter provides practical illustrations as to how crucial information can be obtained with specific methods individualized according to the patients'needs. A hyperlink is provided to a website that contains many of the instruments assessed in the volume. This book enables the reader to understand the value of patient reported outcomes in clinical practice. It is intended to expand and refine the skills of clinicians who work in general and specialized medicine and psychiatry, whether physicians, psychologists or other health professionals.

In DSM-IV, the relationships between physical illness and psychological factors are grouped under the classifications ‘Somatoform Disorders'and ‘Psychological Factors Affecting Medical Conditions'(PFAMC). This volume introduces the ‘Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research'(DCPR) as a new proposal for the PFAMC section of DSM-V. The DCPR approach focuses on psychological characteristics of patients presenting symptoms across different medical disorders related to the clinically relevant psychosocial constructs of abnormal illness behavior, i.e. somatization, demoralization, type A behavior, alexithymia, conversion, and irritability. The distinct DCPR categories are consistent with concepts expressed by outstanding authors in psychosomatic medicine and are therefore suggested as specifiers of PFAMC for the future DSM-V. The volume includes updates, reviews and empirical findings on psychological factors affecting various disorders in different clinical settings (endocrinology, gastroenterology, oncology, dermatology, eating disorders, consultation psychiatry). It is essential reading for psychiatrists, psychologists and physicians interested in psychosomatic medicine, and provides the basic tools for the diagnosis of DCPR conditions.