Abstract
Fuermaier et al. (Applied Neuropsychology: Adult, 2023) reported that the Beck Depression Inventory–Second Edition (BDI-II; Beck et al. in Beck Depression Inventory – (2nd ed.), Psychological Corporation, 1996) can also serve as symptom validity test (SVT) in a compensation seeking Austrian sample. This study was designed to replicate their findings in a clinical sample from the United States. The classification accuracy of BDI-II was evaluated against the Negative Impression Management (NIM) scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey in Personality Assessment Inventory: Professional manual, Tampa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, 1991) and the Word Choice Test (WCT; Pearson in Advanced clinical solutions for the WAIS-IV and WMS-IV – Technical manual, San Antonio, TX: Author, 2009), a free-standing performance validity test (PVT) in a consecutive case sequence of 74 patients referred for neuropsychological assessment by their treating physicians to an academic medical center. The BDI-II cutoff (≥ 38) proposed by Fuermaier et al. was highly specific to the outcome of the NIM (0.95–0.96) and correctly classified 92% of the overall sample, but the sensitivity in our study was lower compared with the study by Fuermaier et al. (0.33–0.50 versus 0.58). A more liberal cutoff (≥ 33) was sufficiently specific (0.89–0.90) and achieved higher sensitivity (0.44–0.67), correctly classifying 88–89% of the sample. Both cutoffs showed specificity ≥ 0.90 when considering the WCT as criterion. This independent replication of the BDI-II validity cutoffs introduced by Fuermaier et al. provides additional empirical support for the instrument’s potential to serve as an SVT. The convergence of findings across continents, criterion measures, and sample characteristics increases confidence in the generalizability of the BDI-II’s ability to differentiate between genuine and likely exaggerated symptoms.