Relationship between personality and health symptoms: Use of the MMPI-2 in medical assessments

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 is a broadband measure of psychopathology and personality that has a long tradition in assessment of medical patients. Beginning in the 1940’s the MMPI was used in the study of psychological factors in medical conditions and an extensive research base for the MMPI, and its successor the MMPI-2, in medical applications has developed. The current theoretical study will review that history of the MMPI for assessment of medical patients with an emphasis on cross national application of the MMPI-2 in medical assessments and the international use of the MMPI-2 in the identification of personality factors important in the identification and treatment of medical conditions. The types of medical problems addressed will include: the differentiation between functional and organic conditions, assessment of chronic organic conditions, asthma, chronic pain, coronary heart disease, headache, eating disorders, and others. Additionally, information regarding the use of the MMPI-2 in screening for organ transplant and the identification of personality traits that lend a vulnerability to the development of coronary artery disease will be presented.