The Impact of Different Forms of Coaching on the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symtomatology (SIMS).

Background: Psychometric symptom validity instruments (SVTs) can be vulnerable to coaching, which can negatively affect their performance. Our aim was to assess the impact that different types of coaching may have on the sensitivity of the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS).

Methods: A simulation design was used with 232 non-clinical adults divided into five experimental simulation conditions and 58 patients with anxious-depressive symptomatology derived from a traffic accident.

The English-language version of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory: a pilot analogue study with feigned head injury sequelae.

Questionnaire-based symptom validity tests (SVTs) are an indispensable diagnostic tool for evaluating the credibility of patients' claimed symptomatology, both in forensic and in clinical assessment contexts. In 2019, the comprehensive professional manual of a new SVT, the Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI), was published in German. Its English-language version was first tested in the UK.

Prevalence Estimates of Symptom Feigning and Malingering in Spain.

Symptom feigning and malingering should be evaluated in forensic contexts due to their important socio-economic consequences. Despite this, to date, there is little research in Spain that evaluates its prevalence. The aim of this study was to investigate this issue using the perception of the general population, students, and professionals of medicine and forensic psychology.

Cry for help as a root cause of poor symptom validity: A critical note.

When patients fail symptom validity tests (SVTs) and/or performance validity tests (PVTs), their self-reported symptoms and test profiles are unreliable and cannot be taken for granted. There are many well-established causes of poor symptom validity and malingering is only of them. Some authors have proposed that a cry for help may underlie poor symptom validity.

Symptom and Performance Validity Assessment in European Countries: an Update.

In 2013, a special issue of the Spanish journal published a review on symptom and performance validity assessment in European countries (Merten et al. in , 24(3), 129-138, 2013). At that time, developments were judged to be in their infancy in many countries, with major publication activities stemming from only four countries: Spain, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Germany.

Feigning memory impairment in a forced-choice task: Evidence from event-related potentials.

Strategies of malingering detection have brought about a wealth of neuropsychological studies in the last decades. However, the investigation of physiological measures to reliably differentiate between authentic and manipulated symptom presentations is still in its infancy. The present study examined event-related potentials (ERP) to identify feigned memory impairment.

Prevalence of overreporting on symptom validity tests in a large sample of psychosomatic rehabilitation inpatients.

Noncredible symptom claims, regularly expected in forensic contexts, may also occur in clinical and rehabilitation referral contexts. Hidden motives and secondary gain expectations may play a significant role in clinical patients. We studied the prevalence of noncredible symptom report in patients treated for minor mental disorders in an inpatient setting.

Symptom and performance validation in patients with subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment.

Nonauthentic symptom claims (overreporting) and invalid test results (underperformance) can regularly be expected in a forensic context, but may also occur in clinical referrals. While the applicability of symptom and performance validity tests in samples of dementia patients is well studied, the same is not true for patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). A sample of 54 memory-clinic outpatients with evidence of SCD or MCI was studied.

Performance validity measures in clinical patients with aphasia.

Introduction: Performance validity testing has developed into an indispensible element of neuropsychological assessment, mostly applied in forensic determinations. Its aim is to distinguish genuine patient performance from invalid test profiles. Limits to the applicability of performance validity tests (PVTs) may arise when genuine cognitive symptoms are present.

The Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) is sensitive to instructed feigning, but not to genuine psychopathology in male forensic inpatients: An initial study.

The (SRSI) is a new symptom validity test that, unlike other symptom over-reporting measures, contains both genuine symptom and pseudosymptom scales. We tested whether its pseudosymptom scale is sensitive to genuine psychopathology and evaluated its discriminant validity in an instructed feigning experiment that relied on carefully selected forensic inpatients ( = 40). We administered the SRSI twice: we instructed patients to respond honestly to the SRSI (T1) and then to exaggerate their symptoms in a convincing way (T2).

The Modified Stroop Task Is Susceptible to Feigning: Stroop Performance and Symptom Over-endorsement in Feigned Test Anxiety.

Some researchers argue that the modified Stroop task (MST) can be employed to rule out feigning. According to these authors, modified Stroop interference effects are beyond conscious control and therefore indicative of genuine psychopathology. We examined this assumption using a within-subject design.

An International Perspective on Feigned Mental Disabilities: Conceptual Issues and Continuing Controversies.

In forensic contexts, an increased prevalence of feigned symptom presentations should be expected, although it will probably vary by the context and specific forensic issue. Forensic experts should examine this possibility proactively while maintaining a balanced perspective that actively considers clinical data for both feigning and genuine responding. Psychological measures and standardized methods developed for feigning and other response styles can facilitate these often complex determinations.

The Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS): a systematic review and meta-analysis.

We meta-analytically reviewed studies that used the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) to detect feigned psychopathology. We present weighted mean diagnostic accuracy and predictive power indices in various populations, based on 31 studies, including 61 subsamples and 4009 SIMS protocols. In addition, we provide normative data of patients, claimants, defendants, nonclinical adults, and various experimental feigners, based on 41 studies, including 125 subsamples and 4810 SIMS protocols.

[The picture of malingered symptom presentation in public opinion].

The views held by health experts on certain topics may differ drastically from what appears to be obvious from observations in daily living or public opinion. This is true for a number of myths which continue to haunt the literature with respect to feigned health problems. Such myths tend to ignore or to distort the results of modern research.

Symptom validity and neuropsychological assessment: a survey of practices and beliefs of neuropsychologists in six European countries.

During the last decades, symptom validity has become an important topic in the neuropsychological and psychiatric literature with respect to how it relates to malingering, factitious disorder, and somatoform complaints. We conducted a survey among neuropsychologists (N = 515) from six European countries (Germany, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and the Netherlands). We queried the respondents about the tools they used to evaluate symptom credibility in clinical and forensic assessments and other issues related to symptom validity testing (SVT).

A note on cognitive dissonance and malingering.

This paper proposes that malingered symptoms may become internalized due to the self-deceptive power of cognitive dissonance. Studies demonstrating how other-deception may turn into self-deception are briefly discussed, as are clinical notions about the overlap between malingering and medically unexplained symptoms. In our view this literature showcases the relevance of cognitive dissonance for research on malingering.

Nonverbal Medical Symptom Validity Test performance of elderly healthy adults and clinical neurology patients.

The study aimed to provide independent data on the specificity of the Nonverbal Medical Symptom Validity Test (NV-MSVT; Green, 2008 ), a new test that combines conventional decision making based on cutoffs with profile analyses in order to identify invalid test performance and to reduce false positive classifications. The results of 65 bona fide neurological patients (with 21 of them meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition, DSM-IV, core criteria for dementia) were compared to 50 healthy volunteers. One patient was wrongly classified as malingering, resulting in a specificity of 98.

Detection of suboptimal effort with the Rey Complex Figure Test and Recognition Trial.

The Rey Complex Figure Test is a neuropsychological instrument that can be employed in different cultural backgrounds. Meyers and Meyers (1995) proposed an extended test version including a Recognition Trial (RT), which permits an examination of test motivation through analyses of test profiles and rare recognition mistakes. In the present study, data from a full-effort group (clinical patients) and an insufficient-effort group (forensic patients) was analyzed.

Performance of children on symptom validity tests: TOMM, MSVT, and FIT.

Symptom validity testing is a major topic in the field of neuropsychological research, but until now, few studies focus on effort testing in children. Three symptom validity tests (SVTs), the Medical Symptom Validity Test, the Test of Memory Malingering, and the Fifteen Item Test plus several standard neuropsychological tests were administered to 73 German-language school children from 6 to 11 years. Participants were either instructed to give full effort or to follow a malingering scenario.

What do Hooper-like tests measure?

The validity of the Hooper Visual Organization Test (VOT) has been questioned by different authors. A set of Hooper-like puzzle tasks and a One-Detail VOT were developed. The items of the latter contain only the most informative detail of the object to be recognized.

Malingering and uncooperativeness in psychiatric and psychological assessment: prevalence and effects in a German sample of claimants.

Effort has repeatedly been shown to have a pervasive effect on performance in psychological tests. The current study evaluates to what degree performance on various psychological tests is affected by lack of effort as compared with brain injury. Psychological and medical data from a sample of 233 patients referred from Workers' Compensation Boards or from claimants in personal injury litigation were retrospectively analyzed.

On the limits of effort testing: symptom validity tests and severity of neurocognitive symptoms in nonlitigant patients.

Modern symptom validity tests (SVTs) use empirical cutoffs for decision making. However, limits to the applicability of these cutoffs may arise when severe cognitive symptoms are present. The purpose of the studies presented here was to explore these limits of applicability.

Objective tests of symptom exaggeration in independent medical examinations.

Objective: This study used the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT) to examine exaggeration of memory impairment in disability claimants.

Methods: The MSVT was administered to patients with soft tissue injuries undergoing an independent medical examination (IME). Their results were compared with those from groups of volunteers who were either trying their best on the test or simulating memory impairment.