Early identification of patients with mental health problems in need of highly specialised care could enhance the timely provision of appropriate care and improve the clinical and cost-effectiveness of treatment strategies. Recent research on the development and psychometric evaluation of diagnosis-specific decision-support algorithms suggested that the treatment allocation of patients to highly specialised mental healthcare settings may be guided by a core set of transdiagnostic patient factors.

To develop and psychometrically evaluate a transdiagnostic decision tool to facilitate the uniform assessment of highly specialised mental healthcare need in heterogeneous patient groups.

The Transdiagnostic Decision Tool was developed based on an analysis of transdiagnostic items of earlier developed diagnosis-specific decision tools. The Transdiagnostic Decision Tool was psychometrically evaluated in 505 patients with a somatic symptom disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. Feasibility, interrater reliability, convergent validity and criterion validity were assessed. In order to evaluate convergent validity, the five-level EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) and the ICEpop CAPability measure for Adults (ICECAP-A) were administered.

The six-item clinician-administered Transdiagnostic Decision Tool demonstrated excellent feasibility and acceptable interrater reliability. Spearman's rank correlations between the Transdiagnostic Decision Tool and ICECAP-A (−0.335), EQ-5D-5L index (−0.386) and EQ-5D-visual analogue scale (−0.348) supported convergent validity. The area under the curve was 0.81 and a cut-off value of ≥3 was found to represent the optimal cut-off value.

The Transdiagnostic Decision Tool demonstrated solid psychometric properties and showed promise as a measure for the early detection of patients in need of highly specialised mental healthcare.

Patients with severe somatoform disorder (in secondary and tertiary care) typically experience functional impairment associated with physical symptoms and mental distress. Although psychotherapy is the preferred treatment, its effectiveness remains to be demonstrated.

To examine the effectiveness of psychotherapy for severe somatoform disorder in secondary and tertiary care compared with treatment as usual (TAU) but not waiting-list conditions.

Main inclusion criteria were presence of a somatoform disorder according to established diagnostic criteria and receiving psychotherapy for somatoform disorder in secondary and tertiary care. Both randomised and non-randomised trials were included. The evaluated outcome domains were physical symptoms, psychological symptoms (depression, anxiety, anger, general symptoms) and functional impairment (health, life satisfaction, interpersonal problems, maladaptive cognitions and behaviour).

Ten randomised and six non-randomised trials were included, comprising 890 patients receiving psychotherapy and 548 patients receiving TAU. Psychotherapy was more effective than TAU for physical symptoms (d = 0.80 v. d = 0.31, P<0.05) and functional impairment (d = 0.45 v. d = 0.15, P<0.01), but not for psychological symptoms (d = 0.75 v. d = 0.51, P = 0.21). These effects were maintained at follow-up.

Overall findings suggest that psychotherapy is effective in severe somatoform disorder. Future randomised controlled studies should examine specific interventions and mechanisms of change.