The ability of individuals with psychoactive substance use disorders to escape detection by the Personality Assessment Inventory

The ability of individuals with psychoactive substance use disorders to dissimulate successfully on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; L. C. Morey, 1991) was evaluated. Patients receiving treatment for drug abuse who were instructed to respond honestly (n = 59) had significantly higher scores on PAI scales measuring problems with alcohol and other drug use than (a) patients instructed to respond defensively (n = 59), (b) respondents suspected of abusing psychoactive substances who were referred for an evaluation by the criminal justice system and who had reasons to conceal their drug use (n = 59), and (c) respondents from a nonclinical control group (n = 59). However, a PAI validity scale designed to measure positive dissimulation was prone to making false positive and false negative errors, depending on the cutoff employed.