The evaluation of illness behaviour and exaggeration of disability

The evaluation of illness behaviour can be complicated by subjective influences in either the patient or the clinician; these often arise in the evaluation of persons seeking compensation for injuries in which the symptoms are apparently exaggerated. The present study attempts to assess the usefulness of the CE Scale in determining the degree of conscious exaggeration by compensation claimants. Comparisons were made between psychiatrists' clinical evaluations of claimants and the scores obtained on this scale. The relationship between these two measures was found to be significant at the 1% level and specificity and sensitivity for less than 25% exaggeration on psychiatrists rating with a CE Scale cut-off of 11.69% and 100% respectively: for less than 34% exaggeration, they were 88% and 83%.