Multidimensional Malingering Criteria for Neuropsychological Assessment: A 20-Year Update of the Malingered Neuropsychological Dysfunction Criteria.

Objectives: Empirically informed neuropsychological opinion is critical for determining whether cognitive deficits and symptoms are legitimate, particularly in settings where there are significant external incentives for successful malingering. The Slick, Sherman, and Iversion (1999) criteria for malingered neurocognitive dysfunction (MND) are considered a major milestone in the field's operationalization of neurocognitive malingering and have strongly influenced the development of malingering detection methods, including serving as the criterion of malingering in the validation of several performance validity tests (PVTs) and symptom validity tests (SVTs) (Slick, D.J.

On percentile norms in neuropsychology: proposed reporting standards and methods for quantifying the uncertainty over the percentile ranks of test scores.

Normative data for neuropsychological tests are often presented in the form of percentiles. One problem when using percentile norms stems from uncertainty over the definitional formula for a percentile. (There are three co-existing definitions and these can produce substantially different results.

Quality of life and seizure outcome after vagus nerve stimulation in children with intractable epilepsy.

This study examined the effect of vagus nerve stimulation on quality of life in children with epilepsy using a validated quality-of-life scale and an empirical technique that accounts for measurement error in assessing individual change (the reliable change index). Participants were 34 children with severe intractable epilepsy who underwent vagus nerve stimulation and 19 children with intractable epilepsy who received medical management. Parent-completed epilepsy-specific and global ratings at baseline and after 1 year indicated that most children had no changes in quality of life following vagus nerve stimulation (52%-77%), similar to the comparison group.

Sociodemographic correlates of health-related quality of life in pediatric epilepsy.

In most chronic conditions, better health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is associated with higher socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnic majority status, with disadvantaged groups typically reporting lower HRQOL. In 163 children with intractable epilepsy, we evaluated the relationship between HRQOL and a broad spectrum of demographic variables (SES, parental education, gender, age, marital status, family size, and ethnic and linguistic status), in relation to known neurological and behavioral correlates of HRQOL. No demographic variable was found to be related to child HRQOL, except for marital status, where children from divorced/separated parents had lower HRQOL.

ADHD, neurological correlates and health-related quality of life in severe pediatric epilepsy.

Purpose: ADHD is reported as a frequent comorbidity in pediatric epilepsy. We aimed to clarify the prevalence of ADHD, its neurological correlates and the role of ADHD in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children with severe epilepsy.

Method: Data from the ADHD Rating Scale-IV (ADHD-RS-IV) from 203 children (mean age = 11.

Postsurgical health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children following hemispherectomy for intractable epilepsy.

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome measure in clinical research. Given the psychosocial and behavioral difficulties associated with pediatric epilepsy, evaluating HRQOL in this patient population is of particular importance. Though HRQOL has been examined in pediatric patients receiving focal resection or pharmacological (antiepileptic drug; AED) treatment, it has not been assessed in patients receiving hemispherectomy (HE) for intractable epilepsy.

Executive dysfunction is a significant predictor of poor quality of life in children with epilepsy.

Purpose: Based on prior research indicating poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, we investigated (1) whether executive functioning deficits were related to poor HRQOL in children with epilepsy, (2) how important these variables were in comparison to known predictors of HRQOL such as neurological factors, and (3) the extent to which clinical-level impairments in executive dysfunction predispose children to low HRQOL.

Method: Data included scores on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and HRQOL scales (The Impact of Childhood Illness Scale [ICI] and Hague Restrictions in Epilepsy Scale [HARCES]) for 121 children (mean age = 11.9, SD = 3.

The factor structure of the CVLT-C in pediatric epilepsy.

The current study used archival data to evaluate the fit of six latent variable models, originally generated by Donders (1999), for the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (CVLT-C; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 1994) in a large (N = 289) sample of pediatric epilepsy cases presenting at three tertiary treatment centers. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we found that a model including factors of Attention Span, Learning Efficiency, Free Delayed Recall, Cued Delayed Recall, and Inaccurate Recall demonstrated the best relative fit for our data. These findings are consistent with those reported by Donders (1999) in his reanalysis of the CVLT-C standardization sample data, supporting the validity of this factorial model in pediatric epilepsy populations.

Frequency of scale elevations and factor structure of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) in children and adolescents with intractable epilepsy.

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) is a standardized rating scale that provides information about the nature and extent of executive function deficits displayed by children and adolescents in daily life. BRIEF protocols completed by parents of 80 children with intractable epilepsy were evaluated with respect to prevalence and severity of scale elevations in the sample, and also with respect to factor structure. Overall, the sample was rated as having significantly more executive function problems than healthy children in the BRIEF standardization sample; elevations on the Working Memory and Plan/Organize scales were most frequently seen.

Detecting malingering: a survey of experts' practices.

A survey addressing practices of 'expert' neuropsychologists in handling financial compensation claim or personal injury litigation cases was carried out. Potential participants were identified by publication history. Responses were obtained from 24 out of the 39 neuropsychologists who were surveyed.

Victoria Symptom Validity Test scores of patients with profound memory impairment: nonlitigants case studies.

Victoria Symptom Validity Test (VSVT) scores from six nonlitigants with neurological illness accompanied by dense anterograde amnesia or severe memory impairment are presented. All of these patients obtained perfect or near perfect scores on the VSVT. These data add to the literature suggesting that the VSVT is insensitive to genuine neurologically-based memory impairment and provide an additional floor-level clinical benchmark against which to compare the performance of litigants.

Reexamining the effects of epilepsy surgery on IQ in children: use of regression-based change scores.

Prior studies have found no adverse effects of pediatric epilepsy surgery on IQ. However, empirical techniques such as regression models, designed to account for confounding factors such as practice effects and test-retest reliability and able to provide a standardized method for evaluating outcome, have not been used in studying change after pediatric epilepsy. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the regression technique while empirically measuring the effect of epilepsy surgery on IQ in a group of pediatric patients.

Intraindividual variability as an indicator of malingering in head injury.

The utility of various measures of malingering was evaluated using an analog design in which half the participants (composed of three groups: naive healthy people, professionals working with head-injured people, individuals who suffered a head injury but not currently in litigation) were asked to try their best and the remainder was asked to feign believable injury. Participants were assessed with the Reliable Digit Span (RDS) task, the Victoria Symptom Validity Test (VSVT), and the Computerized Dot Counting Test (CDCT) on three separate occasions in order to determine whether repeat administration of tests improves prediction. The results indicated that regardless of an individual's experience, consideration of both level of performance (particularly on forced-choice symptom validity tasks) and intraindividual variability holds considerable promise for the detection of malingering.

How'd they do it? Malingering strategies on symptom validity tests.

Twenty-five undergraduate students were instructed to feign believable impairment following a brain injury from a car accident and 27 students were told to perform like they had recovered from such an injury. Three forced-choice tests, the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM), Victoria Symptom Validity Test (VSVT), and Word Memory Test (WMT) were given. Test-taking strategies were evaluated by means of a questionnaire given at the end of the test session.

Validity of three measures of health-related quality of life in children with intractable epilepsy.

Purpose: Validity studies on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scales for pediatric epilepsy are few, and cross-validation with other samples has not been reported. This study was designed to assess the validity of three parent-rated measures of HRQOL in pediatric epilepsy: (a) the Impact of Childhood Illness Scale (ICI), (b) the Impact of Child Neurologic Handicap Scale (ICNH), and (c) the Hague Restrictions in Epilepsy Scale (HARCES).

Methods: Retrospective data were examined for 44 children with intractable epilepsy.