Browsing by Subject "Malingering"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Diagnostic accuracy of the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) in motor vehicle accident patients
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2020-10-12) Pina, David; Puente López, Esteban; Ruiz Hernández, José Antonio; Llor Esteban, Bartolomé; Psiquiatría y Psicología Social
    The SIMS is used in the medico-legal context to assess people who have suffered a traffic accident without proven scientific evidence to support this procedure. The objective of this research is to evaluate the SIMS’ ability to discriminate instructed malingerers, general population, patients who have suffered a traffic accident, and overreporting patients. A simulation design was used to evaluate a total of 650 subjects divided into the four mentioned groups. Our results indicate that the cut-off scores proposed by the authors of the English and Spanish versions (14 and 16) produce moderate sensitivity and specificity values. With a cut-off score of 10, specificity decreases, but sensitivity significantly increases. These results suggest that the SIMS needs to be adapted to the context’s particularities, either by using the proposed cut-off score and other instruments that compensate for the low specificity or by designing new subscales that include symptoms that are typical for the usual conditions in the context.
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    Malingering of disabling mental illness to obtain a temporary work disability benefit: detection and morphology
    (Universidad de Murcia. Servicio de Publicaciones, 2025-10) Amado, Bárbara G.; Vilariño, Manuel; Mainar, Magdalena; Ágreda, Irene; Sin departamento asociado
    Background/Objective: In psychological assessments where the re-sults may lead to obtaining some benefit or gain, malingering should be suspected. This is the case for temporary work disability due to psycholog-ical causes, for which high prevalence of malingering have been estimated. Therefore, a study was designed to examine the utility of the SCL-90-R in detecting malingered psychopathology motivated by the external incentive of obtaining a temporary work disability. Method: A total of 182 partici-pants completed the SCL-90-R in a simulation design, under two condi-tions: responding under standard instructions and under instructions for malingering of psychological cause to obtain a temporary work disability. Results: The results revealed that the working population is almost entirely capable of malingering both clinical symptoms and mental disorders with sufficient severity to obtain a temporary work disability (secondary gain). They employed two strategies: indiscriminant symptom endorsement (ma-lingering impairment across all clinical dimensions, even greater than the psychiatric population) and symptom severity (malinger an extreme intensi-ty, even greater than the psychiatric population). Finally, it was found that the gender factor does not play a significant role in malingering. Conclusions: The implications of the results for forensic assessments are discussed.
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    Prevalence Estimates of Symptom Feigning and Malingering in Spain
    (Springer, 2022-07-26) Puente‑López, Esteban; Pina, David; Reyes López‑López; Héctor González Ordi; Irena Bošković; Thomas Merten; Psiquiatría y Psicología Social
    Symptom feigning and malingering should be evaluated in forensic contexts due to their important socio-economic consequences. Despite this, to date, there is little research in Spain that evaluates its prevalence. The aim of this study was to investigate this issue using the perception of the general population, students, and professionals of medicine and forensic psychology. Three adapted questionnaires were applied to a total of 1003 participants (61.5% women) from 5 different groups. Approximately two-thirds of participants reported knowing someone who feigned symptoms, and one-third disclosed feigning symptoms themselves in the past. Headache/migraine, neck pain, and anxious–depressive symptoms were the most commonly chosen. Experts in psychology and forensic medicine estimated a prevalence of 20 to 40% of non-credible symptom presentations in their work settings and reported not having sufficient means to assess the distorted presentation of symptoms with certainty. Professionals and laypersons alike acknowledge that non-credible symptom presentations (like feigning or malingering) are relevant in Spain and occur at a non-trivial rate, which compares with estimates in other parts of the world.
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    Prevalence of Symptom Overreporting in the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) in Clinical Patients: A Meta- Analysis
    (2024-10-03) Puente López, Esteban; Pina, David; Dandachi-FitzGerald, Brechje; Giromini, Luciano; López Nicolás, Rubén; Nieto Cañaveras, María Dolores; Merten, Thomas; Psiquiatría y Psicología Social
    Antecedentes: Los fallos en las pruebas de validez de síntomas (puntuar por encima del punto de corte establecido) pueden producirse en diversos contextos y situaciones, incluidos los entornos clínicos rutinarios. Hasta la fecha, ningún metaanálisis se ha centrado en la tasa de fallos del Inventario Estructurado de Simulación de Síntomas (SIMS) en evaluaciones clínicas. Método: Se realizó un meta-análisis de efectos aleatorios binomial-normal para estimar la tasa de fallos combinada del SIMS entre pacientes con un diagnóstico clínico que fueron evaluados en un entorno no forense. Resultados: Se incluyeron 34 estudios y 40 muestras (n = 8844). La puntuación media total del SIMS fue de 15.9 (DE = 5.2). La tasa global estimada de fallo de la SIMS fue del 36% (IC del 95%: 30%-43%; I2 = 96.6%, p < .001). Conclusiones: Existe una elevada tasa de fallo en el SIMS en poblaciones de pacientes clínicos; sin embargo, estos resultados positivos no son necesariamente falsos positivos. El reto metodológico de diferenciar los verdaderos de los falsos positivos es vital y debería dictar tanto la planificación cuidadosa de futuros estudios como la circunspección en la interpretación de las tasas de fallo de las pruebas de validez en las evaluaciones clínicas
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    Self-report Measures for Symptom Validity Assessment in Whiplash-associated Disorders
    (Colegio Oficial de la Psicología de Madrid (COPM), 2022-05-26) Pina, David; Puente López, Esteban; Ruiz Hernández, José Antonio; Llor Esteban, Bartolomé; Aguerrevere, Luis E.; Psiquiatría y Psicología Social
    Background/Objective: Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WAD) are one of the most complex conditions to evaluate because several of its symptoms are not observable with current diagnostic methods and cannot be quantified or evaluated correctly. No method is currently available to assess the risk of malingering in the aforementioned condition efficiently. Our aim is to study the capacity of several biopsychosocial psychometric self-report instruments, such as the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), the Cervical Disability Index (NDI), the SF-36 Health Questionnaire, the Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories (BDI-II and BAI), or the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ), to discriminate between patients diagnosed with WAD following a vehicle accident and non-clinical participants with malingering instructions. Method: A simulation design was used with 630 participants: 200 non-clinical controls with honest responding condition, 201 instructed malingerers, and 229 WAD clinical outpatients. Results: Our results showed an AUC range of .60 to .90, with the highest value being that of the BPI (.90), followed by the NDI (.88), and the lowest value that of the BIPQ (.60), followed by the BAI (.71). Conclusions: Overall, the BPI, the NDI, and SF-36 can correctly discriminate between groups with a good specificity (> 90%), while the BAI, BDI, and BIPQ showed a lower capacity, with a high rate of false positives in the case of the BDI and of false negatives in the other two. Practical and research implications are discussed. -----------
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    The Inventory of Problems–29 (IOP-29): a systematic review and bivariate diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis.
    (American Psychological Association, 2023-01-12) Pina, David; Puente López, Esteban; López Nicolás, Rubén; Iguacel, Isabel; Arce, Ramón; Psiquiatría y Psicología Social
    The Inventory of Problems–29 (IOP-29) is a 29-item self-administered symptom validity test (SVT) that assesses the credibility of clinical presentations related to posttraumatic stress disorder, depression/anxiety, psychosis, cognitive impairment and combination thereof. To date, no publications have summarized the classification accuracy of the IOP-29 using a bivariate meta-analytical approach that preserves the two-dimensional nature of the estimators. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review and bivariate diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis of the IOP-29 according to the relevant guidelines. Twenty-one independent samples were included, with a total sample size of 4,163 participants. The results indicated that the IOP-29 is able to discriminate adequately between instructed simulators and healthy controls/clinical patients. Using the recommended cutoff (False Disorder Probability Score [FDS], ≥ .50), a sensitivity of 82% was achieved, maintaining specificity at 93% (false positive rate of 7%). The language of the test and the type of comparison group have been identified as possible sources of heterogeneity. Specificity decreases for the non-English version of the IOP-29, for the FDS ≥ .30, and also decreases for studies using clinical controls, for all three cutoff scores. In general, our findings support the usefulness of the IOP-29 as an SVT; however, most of the included studies use a simulation design and have been coauthored by the test authors. Likewise, about half of the studies did not include bona fide patient controls but only nonclinical controls. The results obtained are highly promising, but further research, especially that using the criterion group paradigm, is recommended.