[Base Rate of Probable Malingering and its Indicators in the Assessment of Mental Disorders - Retrospective Analysis of a Sample of Forensic Psychological Evaluations].

Résumé

PURPOSE: Estimation of a base rate of malingering in accordance with changes of the complexity of assessment in a sample of forensic psychological evaluations.METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 1175 psychological evaluations over the course of 16 years (2000-2015).RESULTS: With the use of increasingly complex methods, inconsistencies are reported more frequently and a higher rate of feigning (47,2%) in symptom validity testing is noted. However, the overall rate of malingering is only 15,8%. A uniform multi-methods approach guarantees that there does not develop any bias in the assessment across evaluators.CONCLUSION: The revealed rate of malingering matches recent reviews that call into question estimations which had yielded substantially higher rates. Symptom validity tests serve as an important decision-making tool for psychological evaluators. For the overall assessment, however, other possible inconsistencies are taken into account.