[Symptom validation in patients with migration background in psychosomatic medicine].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to investigate differences in the occurrence of symptom over-reporting in insurants with and without migration background as well as to determine factors that predict the occurrence of symptom over-reporting.


METHODS
A survey-based screening of validating complaints including Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS), L-scale (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - MMPI-2), Health-49 and Predictive validity of a brief scale measuring the subjective prognosis of gainful employment (SPE-scale) was carried out with 457 German insurants and 138 insurants with migration background previous to their inpatient rehabilitation treatment.


RESULTS
Symptom over-reporting measured by the SIMS could be observed in 33% of the German insurants and 50% of the insurants with migration background. Highest predictive power relative to symptom over-reporting was achieved by Health-49-score followed by social class and sex.


CONCLUSIONS
Percentage of symptom over-reporting is higher in insurants with migration background than in German insurants, but taking into account more factors, differences in German and Non-German insurants can be largely explained by differences in social class and gender distribution. Studies applying multi-method symptom validation are required to clarify the causes of high prevalence of sympom over-reporting in German and Non-German insurants.
Zentrum für Klinische Psychologie und Rehabilitation, Universität Bremen. goebber@psi-i.com
J
J
Göbber
F
F
Petermann
M
M
Piegza
A
A
Kobelt
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D015995:Prevalence; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D054928:Validation Studies as Topic