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Application of the new MMPI-2 Malingered Depression scale to individuals undergoing neuropsychological evaluation: relative lack of relationship to secondary gain and failure on validity indices.

Sweet JJ, Malina A, Ecklund-Johnson E

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, IL 60201, USA. j-sweet@northwestern.edu

The Malingered Depression (Md) scale for the MMPI-2 (Steffan, Clopton, & Morgan, 2003) was recently developed to detect attempts at malingering depressive symptomatology. The Steffan et al. cutoffs for the Md scale were derived through comparisons of undergraduate malingering simulators with depressed undergraduates. In order to explore the potential utility for neuropsychological practice, we examined the Md scale among 160 individuals with and without a context of secondary gain referred for neuropsychological evaluation. Md results were compared to other MMPI-2 validity indices and performance on effort testing. While Md was found to correlate highly with other validity indices from the MMPI-2, it was also correlated significantly with measures of depression, both in individuals with and without a secondary gain context. Md scores were not significantly different between secondary gain and no secondary gain groups, whereas FBS and L were significantly different. The effect of passing or failing validity indicators on rates of Md scores exceeding the Steffan et al. cutoffs was limited. Only among the few individuals exceeding a high threshold on the F scale or combinations of F, FBS, and effort indicators was it common to also surpass the Md cutoff. Overall, Md showed relatively little relationship to either secondary gain status or cognitive malingering in our sample. Given that such factors do not necessarily produce high scores on Md, the utility of the scale to clinical neuropsychologists appears low.

Published 9 August 2006 in Clin Neuropsychol, 20(3): 541-51.
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