Symptom Overreporting in Combat Veterans Evaluated for PTSD: Differentiation on the Basis of Compensation Seeking Status

We examined the role of compensation-seeking status on response patterns to self-report inventories of acute psychopathology and psychological distress in a group of 165 combat veterans evaluated for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at a Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Veteran...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality assessment 1997-04, Vol.68 (2), p.369-384
Main Authors: Frueh, B. Christopher, Gold, Paul B., de Arellano, Michael A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
American people
Anxiety disorders. Neuroses
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Case-Control Studies
Claims
Combat Disorders - diagnosis
Combat Disorders - psychology
Disability allowances
Factors
Humans
Insurance, Disability
Malingering - psychology
Mass Screening - methods
Mass Screening - standards
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
MMPI
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reporting
Sensitivity and Specificity
Veterans
Vietnam War
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Summary:We examined the role of compensation-seeking status on response patterns to self-report inventories of acute psychopathology and psychological distress in a group of 165 combat veterans evaluated for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at a Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Veterans completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Revised, Beck Depression Inventory, Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, a fixed-response format version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale, and Impact of Events Scale as pan of a standard assessment battery. Results showed that compensation-seeking veterans endorsed dramatically higher levels of psychopathology across measures and produced sharply elevated fake-bad validity indices as compared to non-compensation-seeking veterans. Differences between the two groups on most scales and indices exceeded effect sizes of 1.0, even when effects of income, global assessment of functioning, and clinician-rated severity of PTSD were controlled for. It is suggested that the availability of VA disability compensation for combat-related PTSD impedes accurate initial assessment of veterans presenting for treatment and may impair estimation of long-term therapeutic outcome in this population.
ISSN:0022-3891
1532-7752
DOI:10.1207/s15327752jpa6802_8