Europäische Umfrage zum Einsatz von Beschwerdenvalidierungstests: Ergebnisse der deutschen Teilnehmer

Dandachi-FitzGerald, Ponds and Merten (2013) conducted a survey on symptom validity practices and beliefs among neuropsychologists from six European countries. Members of the German Neuropsychological Society constituted the largest group of participants. The results obtained for this subsample (n = 211) were selected for a review. Although research participants acknowledged the importance of a thorough evaluation of symptom validity, unstandardized assessment approaches appeared to prevail. The most common symptom validity tests employed by German neuropsychologists were the Testbatterie zur Forensischen Neuropsychologie, the Word Memory Test, the Rey 15-Item Memory Test, the Amsterdam Short-Term Memory Test and the Aggravations- und Simulationstest. Substantial variation was observed both for prevalence estimates of negative response bias in neuropsychological evaluations and for professionals' familiarity with modern approaches of symptom validation. Moreover, the relevance of symptom validation differed considerably between clinical and forensic referral contexts. Official professional guidelines for symptom validity assessment are still lacking for the German speaking countries.