Investigating the Relationship Between Antisocial Personality Disorder and Malingering

Abstract

Forensic patients with antisocial personality disorder (APD) were compared to forensic patients without APD on a validated measure of malingering (Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms [SIRS]). Results indicated that patients with APD were not significantly more likely to exceed accepted cutoff scores on the SIRS (i.e., 17.9% vs. 11.6%, respectively), nor were they more likely to be suspected of malingering by clinicians (17.9% vs. 18.6%). Although there was a high level of disagreement between clinicians’ determination of malingering and classification by the SIRS, this relationship was not significant. Furthermore, patients with APD who were suspected by clinicians to be malingering were not more likely to be classified as responding genuinely using the SIRS. These findings challenge the recommendation issued by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision) that advises clinicians to be highly suspicious of malingering in the presence of APD.