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. All simulators received a basic scenario and, in addition, the second group was instructed on the symptomatology, the third was warned about the risk of exaggerating the presentation, the fourth received a combination of the two previous groups and the fifth received specific training on SVTs.

Results: The discriminative ability of the SIMS was higher in the basic and symptom information groups, and it decreased significantly in the specific training group on SVTs.

Conclusions: SIMS seems not to be severely impacted by a variety of symptom coaching styles, although test coaching diminished its performance.