The Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory often appears in a psychological test battery of medical-legal evaluators in psychology and psychiatry. In this regard, the Wahler is a self-report inventory in which the individual is asked to state how frequently they have a variety of physical symptoms or complaints such as "headaches, difficulty sleeping and backaches." Unfortunately, a reading of the testing manual indicates that there are no validity scales for this instrument (Wahler, H. J., Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory Manual, Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services, 1983). Accordingly, there is no way of detecting individuals who are endorsing complaints that do not exist. In the absence of test results from the evaluator's battery that establish that the patient completed the testing in an honest and forthright manner, no conclusions can be drawn from the Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory. Additionally, the use of this test in a medical-legal examination is inappropriate as the presentation of the test items can be an encouragement to claim symptoms or complaints that do not exist.
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