Base rates of performance and symptom validity test failures in active duty and Veteran samples referred for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder evaluation

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine base rates of response bias in veterans and service members (SM) referred specifically for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) evaluation. METHOD: Observational study of various performance validity tests (PVTs) and symptom validity tests (SVTs) in a sample of SMs (n = 94) and veterans (n = 504) referred for clinical evaluation of ADHD. RESULTS: SVT and PVT failure rates were similar between the samples, but they were lower than previous Veterans Affairs (VA) and SM studies that were not exclusive to ADHD evaluations. Invalid reporting across all SVT scales on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and Personality Assessment Inventory was relatively uncommon, with rates of invalid scores falling at less than 7%. In both samples, free-standing PVTs were failed at about 22%. CONCLUSIONS: Although the base rates of PVT and SVT failures in ADHD-specific evaluations were lower than previously published data on non-ADHD-specific evaluations in veterans and SMs, the current study continues to support the inclusion of these measures.

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