The Henry-Heilbronner Index: a 15-item empirically derived MMPI-2 subscale for identifying probable malingering in personal injury litigants and disability claimants.

Author(s)

George K. Henry
Wiley Mittenberg, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Robert L. Heilbronner
Craig Enders

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Clinical Neuropsychologist

ISSN

1385-4046

Publication Date

12-2006

Abstract

A new 15-item MMPI-2 subscale, the Henry-Heilbronner Index (HHI), representing a "pseudosomatic factor," was empirically derived from both the 43-item Lees-Haley Fake Bad Scale (FBS) and the 17-item Shaw and Matthews' Pseudoneurologic Scale (PNS). The HHI was superior to both the FBS and PNS in identification of symptom exaggeration in personal injury litigants and disability claimants compared to non-litigating head-injured controls. Logistic regression analyses revealed that a cutscore of > or = 8 on the HHI was associated with good specificity (89%) and sensitivity (80%). These results suggest that the HHI may be useful in identifying personal injury litigants and disability claimants who exaggerate, overreport, or malinger physical symptoms on the MMPI-2 related to their current health and/or litigation status.

DOI

10.1080/13854040500287749

Volume

20

Issue

4

First Page

786

Last Page

797

NSUWorks Citation

Henry, G. K., Mittenberg, W., Heilbronner, R. L., Enders, C. (2006). The Henry-Heilbronner Index: a 15-item empirically derived MMPI-2 subscale for identifying probable malingering in personal injury litigants and disability claimants.. Clinical Neuropsychologist, 20(4), 786-797.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/228