La simulazione della depressione: un nuovo strumento diagnostico per applicazioni medico-legali

Summary: Depression is a subjective disorder and therefore it can be easily faked in a legal setting when an advantage may occur. There are no accurate instruments that permit a high accuracy detection of the subjects faking a depression disorder. In this paper we have developed a new test where subjects are required to sort (from the most difficult to the most easy behaviour) behaviours which are associated to a certain realistic setting. We have investigated three groups of subjects, depressed patients, normal subjects faking depression and normal subjects. Cut-off scores have been calculated and reported that permit to identify a new case as depressed, normal or faker with a very high degree of accuracy (more than 90%).