Psychiatric inpatients and the MMPI-2: providing benchmarks

The second edition of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2: Butcher & Williams, 1992) has become the standard instrument for assessing individuals in a variety of settings, including inpatient psychiatric facilities (Piotrowski, 1997). This study reports on the responding of 516 adult psychiatric inpatients on an acute-care inpatient unit who were administered the MMPI-2 after they were referred for diagnostic testing. Base-rate responding, two-point code frequencies, and gender- and race-based responding are reported. Differences in gender and race responding are noted to coincide with differences in psychiatric diagnosis for those groups. The importance of having base rates for an inpatient sample is discussed. In particular, it is noted that the high levels of endorsement that are characteristic of this population can be difficult to interpret without access to inpatient comparison profiles.