The British Journal of Psychiatry 148: 296-299 (1986)
© 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
The evaluation of illness behaviour and exaggeration of disability
JR Clayer, CL Bookless-Pratz and MW Ross
The evaluation of illness behaviour can be complicated by subjective
influences in either the patient or the clinician; these often arise in the
evaluation of persons seeking compensation for injuries in which the
symptoms are apparently exaggerated. The present study attempts to assess
the usefulness of the CE Scale in determining the degree of conscious
exaggeration by compensation claimants. Comparisons were made between
psychiatrists' clinical evaluations of claimants and the scores obtained on
this scale. The relationship between these two measures was found to be
significant at the 1% level and specificity and sensitivity for less than
25% exaggeration on psychiatrists rating with a CE Scale cut-off of 11.69%
and 100% respectively: for less than 34% exaggeration, they were 88% and
83%.