Ecological validity of performance validity testing.

Performance validity tests (PVTs) have been shown to relate to neuropsychological performance, but no studies have looked at the ecological validity of these measures. Data from 131 veterans with a history of mild traumatic brain injury from a multicenter Veterans Administration consortium were examined to determine the relation between scores on a self-report version of the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory Participation Index, a measure of community participation, and the Word Memory Test, a PVT. A restricted regression model, including education, age, history of loss of consciousness, cognitive measures, and a measure of symptom validity test performance, was not significantly associated with self-reported community reintegration.

PTSD and cognitive functioning: importance of including performance validity testing.

Many studies have observed an association between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cognitive deficits across several domains including memory, attention, and executive functioning. The inclusion of response bias measures in these studies, however, remains largely unaddressed. The purpose of this study was to identify possible cognitive impairments correlated with PTSD in returning OEF/OIF/OND veterans after excluding individuals failing a well-validated performance validity test.

A retrospective review of digit span-related effort indicators in probable Alzheimer's disease patients.

There has been extensive research on the use of both stand-alone and embedded measures of effort in neuropsychological testing; however, relatively few studies have reported on their utility in the context of dementia. Previous studies that have examined the specificity of traditionally used cut-scores on embedded measures of effort with dementia samples have largely found high rates of false positive errors. The present study examined the specificity of several Digit Span derived embedded measures of effort in a large clinical sample of patients with probable Alzheimer's disease stratified by level of dementia severity.

Diagnostic utility of the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology for identifying psychogenic non-epileptic events.

The Structured Interview of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) is a self-report instrument that asks patients whether they experience atypical or implausible symptoms. The instrument has not been evaluated in an epilepsy population, and the potential for it to accurately distinguish between patients with psychogenic non-epileptic events (PNEE) and epileptic event groups has not been established. The SIMS was administered to patients in long-term video-EEG monitoring of these patients, 91 with PNEE and 29 with epilepsy were included in this study.

Variability in Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV subtest performance across age.

Normal Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)-IV performance relative to average normative scores alone can be an oversimplification as this fails to recognize disparate subtest heterogeneity that occurs with increasing age. The purpose of the present study is to characterize the patterns of raw score change and associated variability on WAIS-IV subtests across age groupings. Raw WAIS-IV subtest means and standard deviations for each age group were tabulated from the WAIS-IV normative manual along with the coefficient of variation (CV), a measure of score dispersion calculated by dividing the standard deviation by the mean and multiplying by 100.

Intact vs. impaired ictal sensorium: does it affect outcome of psychogenic nonepileptic events following disclosure of diagnosis?

It remains uncertain whether particular ictal manifestations of psychogenic nonepileptic events (PNEE) can reflect distinctive psychological processes or prognostic outcomes. We hypothesize that the integrity of ictal sensorium may affect the clinical outcome of PNEE following disclosure of diagnosis. We prospectively studied 47 veterans who were diagnosed with video-EEG-confirmed PNEE, presented with the diagnosis utilizing a standardized communication strategy, and followed for their clinical progress.

The use of all three Test of Memory Malingering trials in establishing the level of effort.

Assessment of the effort level is an essential step in establishing the internal validity of any neuropsychological evaluation. The use of response bias measures as part of a core battery, however, is less common outside of forensic evaluations. The amount of time needed to administer many of these tests is often cited as a likely explanation for their exclusion from routine neuropsychological evaluations.

Diagnostic utility of the structured inventory of malingered symptomatology to detect malingering in a forensic sample.

The Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) is a 75-item, self-report measure to be used with individuals at least 18 years of age, which may be utilized to assess potential malingering of psychosis, neurologic impairment, amnesia, low intelligence, or affective disorder. However, no studies in the literature have examined the diagnostic validity of this instrument in a known-groups design involving medicolegal referrals diagnosed as malingering using the criteria outlined by Slick and colleagues [Slick, D. J.

The effects of apolipoprotein E on non-impaired cognitive functioning: a meta-analysis.

Nearly twice as many participants are represented in the current literature than were available at the time of the last major meta-analytic neurocognitive examination of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) epsilon allele combinations [Small, B.J., Rosnick, C.