An individual’s deceptive behavior becomes clinically significant when it is encountered in medical settings if the individual is a subject of a gain-loss situation. Malingering is the behavior of feint the clinician and described as the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological problems in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 …show more content…
Nevertheless, when malingering possesses a differential diagnosis with any psychiatric disorder, clinicians are expected to ascertain the motivations and level of conscious awareness that accompany symptoms reported by individuals rather than identifying certain diagnostic criteria of malingering (6). The motivation for malingered behavior is usually by external incentives; such as avoiding military duty or work, obtaining financial compensation, evading criminal prosecution, or obtaining drugs. DSM-5 denotes four specifiers and any combination of those are strongly suggestive of malingering: (a) the existence of a medicolegal context, (b) explicit discrepancy between the reported impairment and objective observation, (c) lack of cooperation whilst the diagnostic evaluation and nonadherence to treatment, and (d) the presence of antisocial personality disorder …show more content…
(23). Correlations between depression, anxiety and SIMS suggest that large-scale clinical studies are required to reveal the diagnostic accuracy of the SIMS in genuinely symptomatic individuals.
A limitation of the literature on the SIMS is the lack of test–retest reliability data. Merckelbach and Smith (19) obtained a test–retest correlation coefficient of 0.72, Cima and colleagues (24) found test–retest correlation of 0.97. In our study correlation coefficients for Psychosis (P), Neurologic Impairment (NI), Affective Disorder (AF), Amnestic Disorders (AM), Low Intelligence (LI), and whole scale were found to be 0.97, 0.98, 0.96, 0.67, 0.83, and 0.95, respectively.
Unlike other currently available tests like M-FAST which requires 20 to 40 minutes of one-on-one professional administration time, SIMS is a self-report measure that takes 10 to 15 minutes to administer. In conclusion, as a well validated tool that can be administrated in brief period of time Turkish SIMS is an ideal solution for screening malingering in forensic psychiatry