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The article focuses on a study that analyzes the potential utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) 168 with medical inpatients. Correlations and clinically relevant comparisons suggested that the MMPI 168 predicted the standard MMPI with a high degree of accuracy. As psychologists are more involved in medical and rehabilitation wards, the need for a valid brief form of the MMPI is increasingly evident. Data for the study were obtained from files for inpatients on the Neurology and Orthopedics wards of the Seattle, Washington-based hospital who had received the MMPI as a result of a request for psychological consultation.

This article presents information related to comparison of the utility of two abbreviated forms of the MMPI for Psychiatric screening of the elderly. A number of investigators have suggested that in many cases, abbreviated forms of the MMPJ may be more useful than the full MMPI for assessing psychopathology in both inpatients and outpatients. Often patients have limitations that hinder their ability to perform a task of I to 3 hours duration, which casts some doubt upon the validity of the test results. If an abbreviated form of the MMPI could be completed in 30 to 45 minutes and still yield clinically reliable results, the profile could be more valid due to the removal of fatigue factors, the completion rate would be enhanced and the amount of time saved in administration and scoring of the tests would be considerable.