AccScience Publishing / JCBP / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/JCBP025080013
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REVIEW ARTICLE

Diagnosis and assessment of somatic symptom and related disorders among older adults: Issues and strategies

Charlotte Howell1 ,  Daniel L. Segal1* ,  Shaynie Segal2
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1 Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States of America
2 Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States of America
JCBP, 025080013 https://doi.org/10.36922/JCBP025080013
Received: 20 February 2025 | Revised: 7 April 2025 | Accepted: 7 May 2025 | Published online: 28 May 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

The limited understanding and literature concerning somatic symptom and related disorders (SSRDs), especially in older adults, further complicates accurate and sensitive diagnosis and assessment for this growing and specialized population. As the population of older adults is expected to grow exponentially, the purposes of this paper are to identify and elucidate key diagnostic and assessment challenges for SSRDs among older individuals to inform further research and guide practice. This paper also describes common self-report measures for SSRDs and describes the psychometric evidence for the use of these measures with older adults. Regarding diagnosis, older adults have higher rates of somatic multimorbidity and can incorrectly attribute somatic symptoms to normal aging. Furthermore, cognitive impairment rates are higher in older adults, impacting the accuracy of reporting SSRD symptoms. Regarding assessment, there are no elder-specific measures of SSRDs. Moreover, few of the current SSRD measures have been specifically validated for use with older adults. In addition, due to lack of education and awareness, mental health clinicians and medical providers may hold stigmatizing views of older adults with SSRD symptoms. The complex symptom presentation of SSRDs in older adults also complicates the efficacy of assessments. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research on SSRDs with diverse older adult populations.

Keywords
Somatic symptom and related disorders
Older adults
Diagnosis
Treatment
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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Journal of Clinical and Basic Psychosomatics, Electronic ISSN: 2972-4414 Print ISSN: 3060-8562, Published by AccScience Publishing
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