Symptom exaggeration and compensation seeking among combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder

Combat veterans seeking treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) tend to report high levels of psychopathology on self-report instruments. The purpose of the current archival study was to replicate research on the relationships among symptom exaggeration, attempts to obtain compensation, and treatment outcome on the Beck Depression Inventory, the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, and selected MMPI-2 and MCMI-II subscales. Results indicated that symptom exaggeration as defined by an MMPI-2 F-K index over 13 was related to higher scores on all scales examined. Compensation seeking was not related to assessment scores or exaggeration. Neither compensation seeking nor exaggeration was related to treatment outcome. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.