Meyers, Millis, and Volkert [Meyers, J. E., Millis, S. R., & Volkert, K. (2002). A validity index for the MMPI-2. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 17, 157–169] developed a method to detect malingering in chronic pain patients using seven scales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). This method may be impractical because two of the scales (Obvious minus Subtle and Dissimulation-revised) are not reported by the commercially available Pearson computerized scoring system. The current study recalculated the Meyers Index using the five Pearson-provided scales in the chronic pain data sets of Meyers et al. [Meyers, J. E., Millis, S. R., & Volkert, K. (2002). A validity index for the MMPI-2. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 17, 157–169] and Bianchini, Etherton, Greve, Heinly, and Meyers [Bianchini, K. J., Etherton, J. L., Greve, K. W., Heinly, M. T., & Meyers, J. E. (in press). Classification accuracy of MMPI-2 validity scales in the detection of pain-related malingering: A known-groups approach. Assessment], and the traumatic brain injury data of Greve, Bianchini, Love, Brennan, and Heinly [Greve, K. W., Bianchini, K. J., Love, J. M., Brennan, A., & Heinly, M. T. (2006). Sensitivity and specificity of MMPI-2 validity scales and indicators to malingered neurocognitive dysfunction in traumatic brain injury. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 20, 491–512]. Classification accuracy of the abbreviated Meyers Index was comparable to the original. These findings demonstrate that the abbreviated Meyers Index can be used as a substitute of the original Meyers Index without decrements in classification accuracy.
The Meyers validity scale composite index (Meyers Index; Meyers, Millis, & Volkert, 2002) for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2nd edition (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) was designed to assess exaggeration of self-reported psychological symptoms by weighting and integrating seven individual MMPI-2 validity scales. Each scale score is weighted 0, 1, or 2 depending on how strongly the score indicates exaggeration (see Table 1 for scales and weights). The Meyers Index was originally developed comparing chronic pain patients with external incentive to exaggerate symptoms, chronic pain patients without incentive, and medically sophisticated but uninjured simulators (e.g., nurses).
