A psychological screening battery for hospitalized medical patients.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to develop a rapid, useful, and reliable screen battery to identify intellectual and behavioral dysfunction of medical patients. Cluster analysis (BC TRY) of the test scores of 105 medical patients identified 5 psychological dimensions and 1 narrow method dimension which were reduced to 3 dimensions, by statistical and clinical criteria, and named Neuroticism, Verbal-Numerical Ability and Visual-Motor Ability. O-analysis identified 13 psychological subject types which differed from each other on the three dimensions. Clinical meaning was attached to the subject types because of the differential implications of low and high scores on the 3 dimensions. The proposed screening battery consists of the MMPI, Shipley-Hartford, and a brief visual-motor test, which can be groupadministered; the total battery requires 15 minutes of direct examiner time and two hours of patient time.There is a need in the medical treatment of patients with an acute or chronic disease process to recognize the degree to which the personality of the patient is involved and to consider psychological methods for the relief of such complications to disease (Baker & Katsuld, 1969; Silverman, 1970;Weed, 1969). Psychometric assessment offers a useful means for obtaining needed informa-