Malingering (TOMM; T. N. Tombaugh, 1996) is a newly developed visual recognition test that uses pictures of common objects as stimuli. Prior normative research with community-dwelling adults and neurologically impaired patients has shown that the TOMM possesses a high degree of specificity and is not affected by demographic variables such as age and education. The current series of 5 integrated experiments was designed to provide important validation data. Converging evidence from all studies showed that scores on the TOMM are able to detect when an individual is not putting forth maximum effort. Overall, the TOMM's high levels of sensitivity and specificity suggest that it has high promise as a clinical test for detecting malingering of memory impairments. Recent interest in the detection of malingering, the intentional faking or exaggeration of symptoms for personal gain, has generated a consistent body of evidence showing that recognition procedures are particularly sensitive in detecting someone feigning memory impairment during neuropsychological assessment. Much of this evidence stems from a procedure commonly referred to as symptom validity testing (SVT). This is a twoitem, forced-choice recognition paradigm originally used for the detection of sensory impairments (Brady & Lind, 1961; Grosz & Zimmerman, 1965) and later modified to determine malingering of cognitive deficits (Pankratz, 1979; Pankratz, Fausti, & Peed, 1975). More recently, SVT has further been developed by Hiscock and Hiscock (1989) and Binder and Willis (1991). The most popular variation of this procedure contains a series of trials where a five-digit number is presented on each trial and is followed by a delay interval and a two-choice test trial containing the original number and a novel five-digit number. Although this procedure has demonstrated clinical util
The objective of this study is to determine whether violence in psychiatric patients is associated with brain dysfunction independent of substance abuse. Psychiatric inpatients with a history of violent behavior in the community were compared to nonviolent inpatients on several variables related to brain dysfunction. The two groups were similar in terms of demographics and psychiatric diagnosis. No significant differences were found in neuropsychological function, but violent patients were significantly more likely to have co-occurring substance abuse and nearly 4 times more likely to have a history of closed-head injury. Logistic regression revealed that the association between violence and head injury can be explained by comorbid substance abuse
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.