An Australian study on feigned mTBI using the Inventory of Problems – 29 (IOP-29), its Memory Module (IOP-M), and the Rey Fifteen Item Test (FIT)

Abstract

We investigated the classification accuracy of the Inventory of Problems − 29 (IOP-29), its newly developed memory module (IOP-M) and the Fifteen Item Test (FIT) in an Australian community sample (N = 275). One third of the participants (n = 93) were asked to respond honestly, two thirds were instructed to feign mild TBI. Half of the feigners (n = 90) were coached to avoid detection by not exaggerating, half were not (n = 92). All measures successfully discriminated between honest responders and feigners, with large effect sizes (d ≥ 1.96). The effect size for the IOP-29 (d ≥ 4.90), however, was about two-to-three times larger than those produced by the IOP-M and FIT. Also noteworthy, the IOP-29 and IOP-M showed excellent sensitivity (>90% the former, > 80% the latter), in both the coached and uncoached feigning conditions, at perfect specificity. Instead, the sensitivity of the FIT was 71.7% within the uncoached simulator group and 53.3% within the coached simulator group, at a nearly perfect specificity of 98.9%. These findings suggest that the validity of the IOP-29 and IOP-M should generalize to Australian examinees and that the IOP-29 and IOP-M likely outperform the FIT in the detection of feigned mTBI.

Keywords:

• Malingering
• Inventory of Problems
• Fifteen Item Test
• mTBI
• Australia

Disclosure statement

Luciano Giromini and Donald J. Viglione declare that they own a share in the corporate (LLC) that possesses the rights to Inventory of Problems. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.