Empirical Derivation of a New MMPI-2 Scale for Identifying Probable Malingering in Personal Injury Litigants and Disability Claimants: The 15-item Malingered Mood Disorder Scale (MMDS).

Author(s)

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

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2008

Publication Title

Clinical Neuropsychologist

Volume

22

Issue/Number

1

First Page

158

ISSN

1385-4046

Last Page

168

Abstract/Excerpt

A new 15-item MMPI-2 subscale, the Malingered Mood Disorder Scale (MMDS), was empirically derived from the original 32-item Malingered Depression Scale (MDS) of Steffan, Clopton, and Morgan (2003). The MMDS was superior to the original MDS in identification of symptom exaggeration in personal injury litigants and disability claimants compared to non-litigating head-injured controls. Logistic regression revealed that a cut score of > or = 7 on the MMDS produced good specificity (93.4%) with an associated sensitivity of 54.8%. An MMDS score of > or = 8 was associated with 100% positive predictive power, i.e., no false positive errors. These results suggest that the MMDS may be useful in identifying personal injury litigants and disability claimants who exaggerate emotional disturbance on the MMPI-2.

DOI

10.1080/13825580601025916

NSUWorks Citation

Henry, G. K., Mittenberg, W., Heilbronner, R. L., Enders, C., Roberts, D. M. (2008). Empirical Derivation of a New MMPI-2 Scale for Identifying Probable Malingering in Personal Injury Litigants and Disability Claimants: The 15-item Malingered Mood Disorder Scale (MMDS).. Clinical Neuropsychologist, 22(1), 158-168.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/837