The Millon Behavioral Health Inventory: concurrent and predictive validity in a pain treatment center

The Millon Behavioral Health Inventory (MBHI) is one of only a few diagnostic instruments designed specifically for psychological evaluations of medical patients. However, despite being available for clinical use for several years, there are virtually no published research evaluations of this inventory. The present study evaluated the MBHI in light of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores and treatment outcomes of 52 chronic pain patients. MBHI scales were highly correlated with admission and denial of psychopathology, as well as emotional distress, but had little relationship to Hs and Hy of the MMPI. The Pain Treatment Responsivity scale (PP), Allergic Inclination scale (MM), and MMPI D scale predicted the outcome of pain treatment at comparable levels. The specificity of the MBHI scales seems questionable in that 10 of 19 intercorrelations between PP and other MBHI scales were between 0.70 and 0.86. A stepwise regression procedure did not select PP among MBHI variables used to predict treatment outcomes. Results were interpreted as supporting cautious clinical use with pain patients until further research has been carried out.