Criterion-related validity in a sample of migraine outpatients: the diagnostic criteria for psychosomatic research

Abstract Objective. The Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) are those of psychosomatic syndromes that did not find room in the classical taxonomy. More recently, the DCPR were updated, called DCPR-revised (DCPR-R). The present study was conducted to test the criterion-related validity of the DCPR-R. Methods. Two hundred consecutive subjects were enrolled at the Headache Center of Careggi University Hospital (Italy): 100 subjects had a diagnosis of chronic migraine (CM) and 100 had a diagnosis of episodic migraine (EM). Participants received a clinical assessment, which included the DCPR-revised Semi-Structured Interview (DCPR-R SSI), the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5), and the psychosocial index (PSI). Results. Forty-seven subjects (23.5%) had at least one DSM-5 diagnosis: major depressive disorder (8.5%; n = 17) and agoraphobia (7.5%; n = 15) were the most frequent. One hundred and ten subjects (55%) reported a DCPR-R diagnosis: allostatic overload (29%; n = 58) and type A behavior (10.5%; n = 21) were the most frequent. When the incremental validity of the DCPR system over the DSM system was tested using PSI subscales as the criterion variable, the DCPR-R increased up to 0.11–0.24 the amount of explained variance. Subjects with at least one DCPR-R diagnosis showed lower PSI well-being scores ( p = .001), higher PSI stress scores ( p < .001), and higher PSI psychological distress scores ( p = .008) than subjects without a DCPR-R diagnosis. Conclusion. The DCPR-R showed a good criterion-related validity in migraine outpatients. Thus, they might be implemented, together with the DSM-5, in the assessment of migraine subjects.