Performance Validity in a Presurgical Epilepsy Population

This study examined the performance validity test (PVT) pass/fail rate in a sample of presurgical epilepsy candidates; assessed whether performance validity was associated with reduced performance across cognitive domains; investigated the relationship between performance validity and self-report mood questionnaires; and assessed whether PVT performance was associated with demographic or clinical factors (i.e. sex, race/ethnicity, age, years of education, reported history of special education, seizure longevity, and number of anti-seizure medications). One hundred and eighty-three presurgical epilepsy candidates were examined. Each patient's assessment battery included a stand-alone performance validity measure and two embedded validity measures. PVT failure rate in this sample (10%) was associated with reduced performance on all neurocognitive measures: Full Scale IQ (FSIQ;  = -0.26), CVLT-II Total Learning ( = -0.36) and Long Delay Free Recall (LDFR;  = -0.38), BVMT-R Delayed Recall ( = -0.28), and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Categories Completed;  = -0.32). In addition, PVT failure rate was associated with elevated scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory ( = .22) but not on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II;  = .14). Correlations that were significant at the  = 0.05 level maintained significance following post hoc Bonferroni correction. The valid and invalid groups did not differ significantly in sex, race/ethnicity, age, years of education, reported history of special education, seizure longevity, and number of anti-seizure medications. Results from this study suggest that PVT performance was not impacted by demographic or clinical factors and therefore may be a reliable indicator of performance validity in a presurgical epilepsy sample.