Clinical Utility of the MMPI-2-RF Hierarchical Description An Illustration in Cluster C Personality Disorder Patients

Several studies have addressed the associations between the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) scale scores and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) Section II personality disorder (PD) criterion counts. While these studies showed which variables were associated with the PDs as well as their combined predictive potency, no information is available on mean patterns of elevation associated with these conditions. To illustrate how the MMPI-2-RF information may amplify categorical diagnostic information, we describe the mean RF profiles of a psychiatric sample with a Cluster C PD diagnosis. PD classification was based on the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (SCID-II). Patterns of elevation across the three levels of the MMPI-2-RF scale sets were consistently in line with theoretical expectation. In addition, elevated scores on somatic/cognitive scales were noted. It is concluded that the MMPI-2-RF can enhance DSM Personality disorder model description.