Assessing personality and psychopathology after traumatic brain injury with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III.
OBJECTIVE
Despite the widespread use of objective personality inventories as part of neuropsychological assessments of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, little research exists to support the use of these instruments with TBI populations. The purpose of the present study is two-fold: first, to examine the prevalence and extent of personality and psychopathological disturbance in TBI patients compared with a general psychiatric sample and, secondly, to determine whether personality profiles of TBI patients fall within a pathological range relative to normative psychiatric and non-psychiatric populations.


METHODS
Age-, gender- and ethnically-matched TBI and psychiatric patients (n = 462) completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III).


RESULTS
TBI patients had more frequent elevations on histrionic, compulsive and somatoform scales compared with the matched psychiatric sample. Most scales for TBI patients fell outside of the range of the test's normative psychiatric population.


CONCLUSIONS
Implications for interpretation of MCMI-III profiles of TBI patients are discussed.
Ruocco
Anthony C
AC
Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology Program, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA. acr32@drexel.edu
Swirsky-Sacchetti
Thomas
T
Choca
James P
JP
D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales