THE EFFECT OF PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF LOW-BACK-PAIN ON THE MMPIS CONVERSION-V

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is commonly use d to evaluate psychological contributions to low back pain. The scales frequently used in the evaluation contain numerous pain-related quest ions. We asked 53 male and 18 female orthopedic ward inpatients who ha d organic findings accounting for their low back pain to take a modifi ed version of the MMPI that contained the questions comprising the Hyp ochondriasis, Depression, K (correction), and Hysteria scales. The sub jects answered each question twice: the first time as they would have answered when pain free and the second time as they felt with their cu rrent pain. The results showed that the Hysteria and Hypochondriasis s cales were significantly elevated when subjects changed from the way t hey would have answered when pain free to their current ''in pain'' st ates. The elevations were due to changes in endorsement of pain-specif ic items. Thus, when the MMPI is given to low back pain patients, the presence of a low or mid-range conversion V is probably not clinically significant.