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Abstract
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Background
Recently, there is a growing research and clinical interest in the field of forensic neuropsychology. Within this discipline, identification of feigned symptoms presented during forensic assessment has become a particularly important topic. Studies have demonstrated how difficult it can be to detect feigned presentations. Clinicians and researchers have failed to rule out malingering especially in cases of mild or moderate brain damage.
Objectives
The study aims to compare between infrequency (F), fake bad scale (FBS) and infrequency psychopathology (F(p)) scales in diagnosis of malingering to determine the best neuropsychological scale that can be used for diagnosis of malingering; aiming to help forensic psychiatrists in their practice.
Patients and methods
A cross-sectional descriptive study included 150 participants with recent head trauma was subjected using a questionnaire (includes demographic data, cause and degree of traumatic brain injury) completed by the participants. Three valid scales (infrequency (F), fake bad scale (FBS) and infrequency psychopathology F(p)) were administered to patients diagnosed as mild and moderate traumatic brain injury and attending the neurosurgery department at Suez Canal University Hospital seeking for a medical report about their recent trauma. The diagnostic outcomes of these scales were compared with the expert diagnosis based on the convenient clinical diagnostic tool (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders IV (DSM-IV)).
Results
The study reveals a significant association (p < 0.05) between expert diagnosis of malingering and FBS scale outcome, and statistically non-significant relationship (p > 0.05) between expert diagnosis of malingering and the outcome of both (F) and (F(p)) scales. It also demonstrates that the FBS has the higher accuracy among the three studied scales.
Conclusion
FBS is the most specific scale among the three studied scales, as its specificity is 87% compared to 60.9% for F scale and 70% for F(p) scale, and it is also the most sensitive scale as its sensitivity is 93.5% compared to 48.3% for F scale and 38.7% for F(p) scale. |