Identification of malingered head injury on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised.

Abstract

Nonlitigating head injured patients (N = 67) were compared with 67 age-, IQ-, and occupation-matched participants who were instructed to malinger head trauma symptoms on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R). Discriminant function analysis based on the WAIS—R subtests and a Vocabulary-Digit Span difference score were able to accurately classify 79% and 71% of the cases, respectively. Decision rules cross-validated successfully in several independent groups of clinical malingerers. Head injured patients seem to show a pattern of WAIS—R subtest scores that can be discriminated from the profile produced by individuals who attempt to malinger head trauma symptoms.