Neuropsychological Indicators of Malingering on Wechsler Memory Scale-III

Reliably diagnosing malingered mental illness is complex. There are limited studies or assessment tools for identify the malingerers from other psychiatric condition. The present study tried to find out neuropsychological indicators of malingering on memory functions under two conditions, actual and simulated. 30 schizophrenic patients and 30 normal individuals were taken. Normal individual gave their performance in two conditions, firstly their genuine performances were obtained and 3 days later they were asked to simulate on WMS-III (Indian adaptation). Genuine performances were significantly superior to the simulated performances. Discriminant analysis was used to see the discriminant the group performance in different conditions. On WMS-III classification rate shows that 80% feigned performance were classified as feigned. In addition during simulation normal participant using different response style for faking on different subtest of WMS-III which are Error of Commission, Random Response, Distribute Error and Failure on easy items, these response style differentiate normal faker from patient group. Different response styles might be helpful in identifying malingerers.