Perhaps more problematically, in such a situation one has to assume that the symptom count score reflects the same variable for each person, but that may well not be true. Individuals could have similar symptom counts yet different patterns of scores on individual constructs. When that is the case, the symptom count is not a coherent theoretical entity, and its correlation with measures of other constructs has unclear meaning. The same concerns apply when a disorder score is used as a predictor rather than as a criterion.
