Background: Psychological testing is used in some preoperative psychological evaluations of patients seeking metabolic and bariatric surgery. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3 (MMPI-3) contains new norms, updated item content, and new scales such as Eating Concerns and Impulsivity, which are relevant to the assessment of patients seeking metabolic and bariatric surgery.
Objective: The goal of this investigation was to establish convergent and discriminant properties of the MMPI-3 scales with relevant clinical interview and medical record data from electronic medical records.
Setting: Academic medical center in the Midwest.
Methods: A sample of 790 consecutive patients who completed a preoperative psychological evaluation and took the MMPI-3 were included. Data from medical records and the assessment report were coded by a trained research assistant.
Results: MMPI-3 scale scores demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity. For instance, the Emotional/Internalizing Dysfunction scales correlated with depression and anxiety disorder, suicide history, sexual abuse history, psychotropic medication use, and eating behaviors. Behavioral/Externalizing Dysfunction scales correlated with alcohol, nicotine, and substance use and eating behaviors such as loss-of-control overeating. The Eating Concerns scale demonstrated the highest correlational patterns with various eating behaviors such as loss-of-control overeating, binge eating, and stress eating.
Conclusions: MMPI-3 scale scores perform as well as their Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form counterparts. Newer scales, such as Eating Concerns and Impulsivity, perform particularly well in the assessment of various eating behaviors.
Keywords: Bariatric; Eating disorders; MMPI-3; Psychopathology; Screening.
Copyright © 2024 American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.