MMPI-2 Assessment of Differential Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Patterns in Combat Veterans and Sexual Assault Victims

• NCJ Number: 208921
• Journal: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 16 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2001 Pages: 619-639
• Author(s): Joshua L. Kirz; Kent D. Drescher; Jeffrey L. Klein; Fred D. Gusman; Mark F. Schwartz
• Date Published: July 2001
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the clinical utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) as a diagnostic measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Abstract

The MMPI-2 is a 567-item self-report measure intended for the assessment of psychopathology and personality characteristics. This study focused on the use of the MMPI-2 to measure PTSD related to combat and sexual assault. Combat-trauma data were collected from a sample of 118 male patients at a PTSD inpatient unit at a large Veterans Administration Medical Center in California. The sexual trauma data were collected from 59 female patients at an inpatient psychiatric unit in Louisiana that specializes in the treatment of PTSD and sexual assault. A comparison group consisted of 73 psychotherapy patients who were receiving outpatient services. The descriptive analyses focused on differences between the combat and sexual trauma groups. Compared to the sexual trauma group, the combat trauma group was older, less educated, more ethnically diverse, more likely to be separated or divorced, and more symptomatic on the Los Angeles Symptom Checklist (LASC), which was used to check and cross-validate the diagnosis of PTSD. Overall, both groups had highly elevated MMPI-2 profiles across clinical and content scales. Before controlling for PTSD symptom severity, the combat trauma group manifested significantly more symptoms and signs of pathology than the sexual trauma group. Some of these differences in symptom profiles are associated with gender, which could not be controlled in this study. The study concluded that the PTSD scales of the MMPI-2 are not perfect predictors of PTSD, but were significantly more accurate than chance in differentiating PTSD-positive from PTSD-negative patients and can classify either the combat or sexual assault group as distinct from non-PTSD therapy patients. 4 tables and 49 references