Elderly (n = 30) and young (n = 30) subjects, equated in terms of general physical health, education and depression, were compared in terms of Total, Frequency and Intensity scores on the psychosomatic symptom checklist (PSC). Elderly subjects scored significantly lower than young subjects for both PSC Total and PSC Intensity scores. These results call into question the practice of aggregating PSC data from age heterogeneous samples and indicate the importance of reporting all three PSC scores.