Prior newsletter (PART I) created the foundation for more accurate examinations through better testing.
Adult Neuropsychological & Psychological Test Batteries:
Category Test -Computer Version
Conners’ Continuous Performance Test-II (CPT-II)
Finger Tapping Test (FTT)
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory—4th Edition (MCMI-IV)
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—3rd Edition (MMPI-III)
Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT)
Adult Sentence Completion Test
STROOP Color-Word Test
Structured Inventory of Reported Symptoms- 2nd Edition (SIRS-2)
Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM)
Trail Making Test A & B
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV)
Wechsler Memory Scale-IV (WMS-IV)
Wide Range Achievement Test—4th Edition (WRAT-4)
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test- Computer Version (WCST)
Additionally, every client will undergo clinical interviews by the examiners.
The use of these standardized tests help maximize the accuracy of the evaluation, thereby making diagnosis and possible treatment more meaningful and more effective. Whichever measures are used should be copyrighted, standardized, validated, normed and reliable instruments. The use of experimental or research instruments in legal procedures should be avoided. Federal rules of evidence preclude testimony that results from experimental or research measures.
Self-report symptom checklists, such as the Symptom Checklist–90, the Beck Depression (BDI), Anxiety (BAI) and Hopelessness Inventories, the Schinka Symptom Checklist and others should be used with extreme caution in medico-legal evaluations due to secondary gain issues. These rating scales lack reliability and validity data to ensure that they measure what they purport to measure. There are no validity scales associated with these self-report checklists, hence there is no measure of motivation.
In the litigation evaluation process, it is often incorrectly assumed that a checklist or rating scale measures the presence or absence of specific clinical traits (e.g., depression, anxiety, hopelessness), when in fact, the scales simply measure the patient’s queued response to a list of symptoms. These subjective checklists were designed for and are most useful in non-litigation (clinical) populations where individuals have fewer secondary gain motivations.