Stability of the MCMI among depressed psychiatric outpatients.
The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) is a promising, yet somewhat unproven psychometric inventory developed to identify clinical syndromes and personality traits consonant with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed. [DSM-III]; American Psychiatric Association, 1980). The stability of its measures for both the theoretically more stable personality characteristics and the clinical syndromes was investigated in a group of depressed psychiatric outpatients. In this test-retest design with a 3-month interval between tests, clinical syndrome scales of relevance changed significantly as expected. However, many of the personality scales also changed significantly. Only four of the personality scales met a two-fold test of stability. Findings are discussed in terms of characteristics of self-report inventories such as the MCMI, the uniqueness of the depressed population, and characteristics of personality disorders.
Libb
J W
JW
Department of Psychiatry, University of Alabama, Birmingham.
Stankovic
S
S
Sokol
R
R
Freeman
A
A
Houck
C
C
Switzer
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics