TY - JOUR
T1 - Consistency does not aid detection of feigned symptoms, overreporting does
T2 - Two explorative studies on symptom stability among truth tellers and feigners
AU - Boskovic, Irena
AU - Zwaan, Lisette
AU - Baillie, Victoria
AU - Merckelbach, Harald
PY - 2022/11/2
Y1 - 2022/11/2
N2 - Practitioners always want to exclude the possibility that a patient is feigning symptoms. Some experts have suggested that an inconsistent symptom presentation across time (i.e., intraindividual variability) is indicative of feigning. We investigated how individuals with genuine pain-related symptoms (truth tellers; Study 1 n = 32; Study 2 n = 48) and people feigning such complaints (feigners; Study 1 n = 32; Study 2 n = 28) rated the intensity of their symptoms across a 5-day period. In both studies, feigners reported on all 5 days significantly higher symptom intensities than people with genuine complaints, but the two groups did not differ with regard to symptom (in)consistency. Thus, persistently inflated, rather than inconsistent, reports of symptom intensity over time are suggestive of feigning. The implications and limitations of our work are discussed.
AB - Practitioners always want to exclude the possibility that a patient is feigning symptoms. Some experts have suggested that an inconsistent symptom presentation across time (i.e., intraindividual variability) is indicative of feigning. We investigated how individuals with genuine pain-related symptoms (truth tellers; Study 1 n = 32; Study 2 n = 48) and people feigning such complaints (feigners; Study 1 n = 32; Study 2 n = 28) rated the intensity of their symptoms across a 5-day period. In both studies, feigners reported on all 5 days significantly higher symptom intensities than people with genuine complaints, but the two groups did not differ with regard to symptom (in)consistency. Thus, persistently inflated, rather than inconsistent, reports of symptom intensity over time are suggestive of feigning. The implications and limitations of our work are discussed.
KW - Consistency heuristic
KW - Feigning
KW - SRSI
KW - Symptom overreporting
U2 - 10.1080/23279095.2021.1888728
DO - 10.1080/23279095.2021.1888728
M3 - Article
C2 - 33761304
SN - 2327-9095
VL - 29
SP - 1458
EP - 1466
JO - Applied Neuropsychology-Adult
JF - Applied Neuropsychology-Adult
IS - 6
ER -