Another look at MMPI profile types in multiple sclerosis.

Abstract

Canter (1951) reported a descriptive study of MMPI profiles of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Although recognizing the limitations of the approach, he calculated the average MMPI profile for this group of 33 World War II veteran patients and inferred from the mean profile for the group that the typical personality configuration in MS included a reaction to the stress of the illness with depression and its accessory symptoms. When depression is a major variable under study, the averaging of MMPI profiles can obscure important profile differences especially if subsamples are combined, one of which has very high D scores and the other of which has very low D scores. This is a particularly important consideration in the study of an illness such as MS in which both reactions of high depression and low depression because of denial and repression have been observed. If discrete profile types were to be produced reflecting each of these reaction types, such an important difference would be cancelled out and masked by averaging. The aim of the present study was to attempt to check Canter's MMPI findings and to answer the following questions: (a) Can a typical response to MS in the direction of depression be inferred from the MMPI? (b) Among patients with neurological lesions, are MMPI profiles indicative of depression more common in MS than in other conditions? To investigate the latter question, a control group of neurological patients was selected who had suffered brain injury from external causes. A second purpose of this paper is to report on significant relationships between MMPI profile characteristics and illness and demographic variables which became apparent when profiles were studied as depressed and non-depressed types rather than as average group profiles.

Does levodopa alter depression and psychopathology in Parkinsonism patients?

“…Another method of analysing the MMPI profiles is to categorize them individually into diagnostic subgroups measuring the degree of depression and/ or emotional abnormality present in each patient. Gilberstadt and Farkas (1961) developed this method of analysing MMPI profiles which offers more detailed analysis of each patient's MMPI pattern than do group mean score comparisons. Their method involves examining the configuration of the scales' scores and categorizing each individual MMPI profile into one of the four following categories: (1) an MMPI profile with not more than 1 scale over 70, D greater than 60 is categorized as normal depressed;…”

The MMPI as a Measure of the Emotional Correlates of Chronic Hemodialysis: A Review

“…Comparison of dialysis patients with other groups of chronically ill patients might provide more comprehensive information about the unique effects of renal failure and dialysis. Elevations of the same general magnitude have been found on the neurotic triad for other chronic illness groups, including coronary heart disease patients (Bruhn, Chandler, & Wolf, 1969;Lebovits, Shekelle, Ostfeld, & Paul, 1967), multiple scilerosis patients (Canter, 1951;Gilberstadt, & Farkas, 1961), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients (Brown & Mueller, 1970;Peters, Swenson, & Mulder, 1978), and rheumatoid arthritis patients (Polley, Swenson, & Steinhilber, 1970). These results suggest that the various psychometric responses seen in dialysis patients may result from the severe stresses to adaptation involved in chronic illness in general.…”

A Modal MMPI Profile Type in Neurodermatitis

“…In a previous study, 5 profile sorting had been done on the twofold basis of overall elevations and height of the Depression Scale according to the following categories:…”

“…XXIV, NO. 5,1962 was 48, and the mean age of the control group was 52. Only patients with diagnoses of generalized neurodermatitis, localized neurodermatitis, "dyshydrosiform" eczema, and chronic urticaria were included in the neurodermatitis group.…”