Compensation seeking status and psychometric assessment of combat veterans seeking treatment for PTSD

Abstract

Examined differences between compensation seeking (CS) veterans and noncompensation seeking (NCS) veterans on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and other psychological measures in 142 combat veterans evaluated for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at an outpatient Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital PTSD clinic. Patients were grouped on the basis of their compensation seeking status, with 69% classified as CS for PTSD. The CS veterans achieved significantly more pathological scores across a wide range of psychological inventories and MMPI-2 validity indices, although they did not differ in frequency of PTSD diagnoses from NCS veterans. Implications of these findings are discussed, and clinicians are advised to be aware of the compensation seeking status of combat-veterans being evaluated for PTSD.