Knowledge of Depression and Malingering: An Exploratory Investigation

Malingering mental disorder for financial compensation can offer substantial rewards to those willing to do so. A recent review of UK medico-legal experts’ practices for detecting claimants evidenced that they are not well equipped to detect those that do. This is not surprising, considering that very little is known regarding why individuals opt to malinger. A potential construct which may influence an individual’s choice to malinger is their knowledge of the disorder, and when one considers the high levels of depression literacy within the UK, it is imperative that this hypothesis is investigated. A brief depression knowledge scale was devised and administered to undergraduate students (N = 155) alongside a series of questions exploring how likely participants were to malinger in both workplace stress and claiming for benefit vignettes. Depression knowledge did not affect the likelihood of engaging in any malingering strategy in either the workplace stress vignettes or the benefit claimant vignettes. Differences were found between the two vignettes providing evidence for the context-specific nature of malingering, and an individual’s previous mental disorder was also influential

Evaluation of a novel kit (TF-Test) for the diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections

Intestinal parasitic infections are currently a source of concern for Public Health agencies in developing and developed countries. Since three ovum-and-parasite stool examinations have been demonstrated to provide sensitive results, we designed a practical and economical kit (TF-Test) that is now commercially available (Immunoassay Com. Ind. Ltda., S (a) over tildeo Paulo, Brazil). This kit allows the separate collection of three fecal specimens into a preservative solution. The specimens are then pooled, double-filtered, and concentrated by a single rapid centrifugation process. The TF-Test was evaluated in four different laboratories in a study using 1,102 outpatients and individuals living in an endemic area for enteroparasitosis. The overall sensitivity found using the TF-Test (86.2-97.8%) was significantly higher (P 0.01) to that of the TF-Test. The kappa index values of agreement for the TF-Test were consistent (P < 0.01), being higher and ranking in a better position than conventional techniques. The high sensitivity, cost/benefit ratio, and practical aspects demonstrate that the TF-Test is suitable for individual diagnosis, epidemiological inquiries, or evaluation of chemotherapy in treated communities. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Univ São Paulo, Fac Pharmaceut Sci, Dept Clin & Toxicol Anal, BR-05508900 São Paulo, BrazilPaulista State Univ, Clin Hosp, Lab Clin Anal, São Paulo, BrazilUniv São Paulo, Clin Hosp, Parasitol Lab, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Taubate, Dept Parasitol, São Paulo, BrazilOrion Res Ctr Biotechnol, São Paulo, BrazilState Univ Campinas, Dept Clin Parasitol, São Paulo, BrazilPaulista State Univ, Clin Hosp, Lab Clin Anal, São Paulo, Brazi

The Motivational Assessment Tool (Mat) Development And Validation Study

The purpose of the present research is to validate a measure of motivation collimated from an individual’s motivational, affective, and personality traits. The Motivational Assessment Tool (MAT) is being developed to assess multiple variables for an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to deploy individualized adaptations through various levels of learner profiling. This first study factor analyzed a pool of 303 questions aimed at reducing, refining, and developing scales. Overall, the results of the first factor analysis shows that the MAT is composed of 28 factors. The produced scales are supported by correlations with other factors identified in psychology. The MAT is envisioned to provide inputs into an intelligent tutor’s pedagogical strategy to adapt its learning methods to support the learner’s motivational type