The pattern of psychopathology associated with malingering tendencies at basic psychiatric screening of the Swiss Armed Forces

Abstract

This study uses military recruitment data, collected in 2003 from Swiss Armed Forces conscripts, to observe the pattern of psychopathology and addictive behavior for conscripts identified as those with malingering tendencies. To that end, we first applied Derogatis' criterion for the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised to identify recruits with malingering tendencies. We then used bivariate methods (t test and χ2 tests) to compare self-reported psychopathology and addictive behavior of such recruits to that of recruits not identified as potential malingerers. We find that recruits with malingering tendencies have significantly higher mean scores in all psychopathological symptom dimensions and addictive behaviors than recruits without malingering tendencies. The results suggest that the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised is well suited as a screening for malingerers in nonpatients and conscripts.