Rasch Analysis and Its Relevance to Psychosomatic Medicine

Over the years, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics has published papers on numerous new psychosomatic measures [1], most notably the Diagnostic Criteria for use in Psychosomatic Research [2] and the PsychoSocial Index [3] but also measures of allostatic load [4, 5], euthymia [6], and mental pain [7]. A characteristic of all these measures is that they aim to detect and quantify clinically important concepts that cannot be measured directly. Such concepts might be termed latent traits. These measures have all been developed using clinimetric methods and criteria [8‒11]. Clinimetrics is a particular approach for clinical investigators and clinicians to develop and evaluate assessment measures intended specifically for clinical research and practice.