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Correlations among measures of malingering in a sample of litigants
Abstracts /Archives of Clinical NeuropsychologV 15 (2000) 653450
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occurrence of cognitive and somatic malingering using multiple measures within a large patient population of compensation seeking personal injury litigants. Profiles from litigants with elevated scores on 3 measures documented to be sensitive to cognitive malingering (the Portland Digit Recognition Test (PDRT); the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), General Memory scale versus Attention/Concentration discrepancy; and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R), discrepancy between Vocabulary and Digit Span) were compared to scores on the LeesHaley, et al., FBS to detect co-occurrence of somatic malingering. Preliminary analyses of a small portion of the total sample reveal trends suggesting that the FBS is positively correlated with the WAN-R Vocabulary minus Digit Span index and negatively correlated with the PDRT, consistent with expectations regarding co-occurrence. However, only a weak relationship was found between the FBS and the WMS-R, GM-A/C Index. Given these trends, it is expected that the FBS will be significantly correlated with the PDRT and WAIS-R Voc-DS measures, but not the WMS-R GM-A! C Index once the final analyses are conducted using the entire sample. In addition, the sensitivity of the FBS was also compared to the litigants’ MMPI-2 L, F, K, F-K, 1 and 3 scale scores. Consistent with predictions, the FBS was significantly correlated with scales 1 and 3, but not with any other traditional MMPI-2 over-reporting scales. The final analyses will likely add further support for these findings. It is expected that this study will serve as a method of re-establishing the FBS as a more reliable and valid measure of somatic malingering than the frequently used MMPI-2 validity/over-reporting scales.
Correlations among measures of malingering in a sample of litigants O’Bryant S, Weber M, Constantinou M, McCaffrey RI. The increased role of neuropsychologists in forensic cases has led to an explosion in the development of techniques to evaluate symptom exaggeration/malingering. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which several of these commonly utilized techniques overlap with one another. Archival data on 48 litigants were utilized. Scores on the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM), Rey 15-Item Test, and the validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) were compared. The Rey- 15 and the TOMM significantly correlated with one another on all 3 TOMM scores (p < 0.05). The FB scale of the MMPI-2 significantly correlated with both the TOMM and the Rey-15 (p ~0.05). However, none of the remaining MMPI-2 validity scales correlated significantly with either the TOMM or the Rey-15. The implications of these findings for clinical neuropsychological practitioners in forensic evaluations are discussed.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI): analysis of a neurocorrection factor in a litigation sample Smith ES, Heilbronner RL. The purpose of the present study was to study the clinical usefulness of Gass’ (1991) neurocorrection factor when applied to a sample of mild TBI (MTBI) litigants. Previous studies have shown that this correction factor can help to minimize the influence of neurologic item endorsement on MMPI2 profiles, but few have examined it with a litigation sample. The sample consisted of 30 MTBI adults (16 males, 14 females) with a mean age of 40.07 years. They were selected from the tiles of 2 board certified clinical neuropsychologists. Subjects were excluded if they had a history of diagnosed psychiatric disorder, substance abuse, learning disability, or previous head trauma.
835
occurrence of cognitive and somatic malingering using multiple measures within a large patient population of compensation seeking personal injury litigants. Profiles from litigants with elevated scores on 3 measures documented to be sensitive to cognitive malingering (the Portland Digit Recognition Test (PDRT); the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), General Memory scale versus Attention/Concentration discrepancy; and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R), discrepancy between Vocabulary and Digit Span) were compared to scores on the LeesHaley, et al., FBS to detect co-occurrence of somatic malingering. Preliminary analyses of a small portion of the total sample reveal trends suggesting that the FBS is positively correlated with the WAN-R Vocabulary minus Digit Span index and negatively correlated with the PDRT, consistent with expectations regarding co-occurrence. However, only a weak relationship was found between the FBS and the WMS-R, GM-A/C Index. Given these trends, it is expected that the FBS will be significantly correlated with the PDRT and WAIS-R Voc-DS measures, but not the WMS-R GM-A! C Index once the final analyses are conducted using the entire sample. In addition, the sensitivity of the FBS was also compared to the litigants’ MMPI-2 L, F, K, F-K, 1 and 3 scale scores. Consistent with predictions, the FBS was significantly correlated with scales 1 and 3, but not with any other traditional MMPI-2 over-reporting scales. The final analyses will likely add further support for these findings. It is expected that this study will serve as a method of re-establishing the FBS as a more reliable and valid measure of somatic malingering than the frequently used MMPI-2 validity/over-reporting scales.
Correlations among measures of malingering in a sample of litigants O’Bryant S, Weber M, Constantinou M, McCaffrey RI. The increased role of neuropsychologists in forensic cases has led to an explosion in the development of techniques to evaluate symptom exaggeration/malingering. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which several of these commonly utilized techniques overlap with one another. Archival data on 48 litigants were utilized. Scores on the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM), Rey 15-Item Test, and the validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) were compared. The Rey- 15 and the TOMM significantly correlated with one another on all 3 TOMM scores (p < 0.05). The FB scale of the MMPI-2 significantly correlated with both the TOMM and the Rey-15 (p ~0.05). However, none of the remaining MMPI-2 validity scales correlated significantly with either the TOMM or the Rey-15. The implications of these findings for clinical neuropsychological practitioners in forensic evaluations are discussed.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI): analysis of a neurocorrection factor in a litigation sample Smith ES, Heilbronner RL. The purpose of the present study was to study the clinical usefulness of Gass’ (1991) neurocorrection factor when applied to a sample of mild TBI (MTBI) litigants. Previous studies have shown that this correction factor can help to minimize the influence of neurologic item endorsement on MMPI2 profiles, but few have examined it with a litigation sample. The sample consisted of 30 MTBI adults (16 males, 14 females) with a mean age of 40.07 years. They were selected from the tiles of 2 board certified clinical neuropsychologists. Subjects were excluded if they had a history of diagnosed psychiatric disorder, substance abuse, learning disability, or previous head trauma.