MMPI variables predictive of schizophrenia in the Copenhagen High‐Risk Project: a 25‐year follow‐up

Abstract

Moldin et al. (1) have identified a cluster of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scales that discriminate adolescents at risk for schizophrenia from those not at risk. The present study examines how well Moldin's scales predict schizophrenic decompensation in a sample of 207 Danish adolescents at high genetic risk for schizophrenia. Subjects were assessed using a modified, 304-item MMPI in 1962 (mean age= 15.1 years) and diagnosed in 10-year and 25-year follow-ups. Premorbidly, schizophrenic subjects (n=31) scored higher than subjects with no mental illness on the frequency (F) and psychoticism (PSY) scales. When paranoid and non-paranoid preschizophrenics were separated, three scales (F, Pz (paranoid schizophrenia) and PSY) significantly discriminated paranoid preschizophrenics. Discriminant function analyses confirmed these results. It is concluded that the MMPI may be useful for identifying schizophrenia premorbidly.

Premorbid self‐disorders and lifetime diagnosis in the schizophrenia spectrum: a prospective high‐risk study

“…Details of this assessment are described elsewhere. 28 We decided against applying the traditional criteria for MMPI profile validity for several reasons: (i) the reduction in the item pool precludes calculation of the standard T-scores used to determine profile validity; (ii) the non-standard administration produced a large number of profiles with Can't Say levels traditionally considered invalid; and (iii) prior reports 28,34 have supported the research value of including MMPI profiles which might be considered invalid in a clinical context -specifically records with elevated F (infrequency) scores among samples at high risk for psychosis. Therefore, only participants missing an MMPI assessment (N = 24) or whose MMPI record contained more than 50% Can't Say responses (i.e.…”

“…Missing value substitution was not performed for the scale calculation; instead, the resulting raw score was prorated for the presence of missing items, and cases missing 50% or more of the scale items were assigned missing scale scores. This procedure is a slightly more conservative version of the procedure used to compensate for excessive missing values in previous analyses of this 28 and similar samples. 36,37 Participants were given diagnostic assessments at both the 10-and 25-year follow ups; diagnoses from these assessments were reviewed in 1989 by a team of psychologists and psychiatrists and consensus DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised) lifetime diagnoses were assigned.…”

“…Several existing MMPI scales have been shown to aid the prediction of schizophrenia-spectrum outcomes. [28][29][30] Our interest, however, was not in replicating these successes, but in identifying an a priori set of MMPI items, selected purely on the basis of their similarity to EASE content domains, and examining the predictive properties of this analogue self-disorder scale. Our criterion would be to select any MMPI item statement that, if spontaneously presented as a complaint by the subject in an EASE interview, would motivate the EASE interviewer to explore it in-depth as a potential token of SD.…”

“…In the present study, we therefore turned to the existing data from the Copenhagen High-Risk Project (CHRP) 28 in order to explore this issue. The CHRP is the largest and longest running prospective study of children at high-genetic risk for schizophrenia.…”

The Schizophrenia Proneness (SzP) scale: An MMPI‐2 measure of schizophrenia liability

“…Carter, Parnas, Cannon, Schulsinger, & Mednick, 1999;Moldin, Gottesman, Erlenmeyer-Kimling, & Cornblatt, 1990). Partly on the basis of the results of these prior studies, Bolinskey et al (2001) introduced a preliminary version of the Schizophrenia Proneness (SzP; see Appendix) scale, which was derived from a subset of items in Rosen's (1962) Paranoid Schizophrenia (Pz) scale.…”