The Millon Behavioral Health Inventory (MBHI™)
by Theodore Millon, Ph.D., Catherine J. Green,
Ph.D., & Robert B. Meagher, Jr., Ph.D.
Never, before the MBHI™, has such a comprehensive inventory been available for
application in such a wide range of medical settings. Not long ago, a medical professional
using psychological tests as an aid to medical diagnosis needed to consider a whole
battery of costly, time-consuming instruments. And the results of these diverse,
unintegrated tests, many of which were suitable only for the psychiatrically ill, could be
less than useful. In constructing the MBHI, Drs. Millon, Green and Meagher set out to
concentrate a full range of relevant assessments into one comprehensive, concise
instrument. Using norms based on a wide range of medical populations, they designed a tool
for use exclusively with physically ill and behavioral medicine patients, always keeping
in mind the requirements of medical-behavioral decision making.
The primary purpose of the MBHI™ test is to provide information to clinicians,
including psychologists, physicians and nurses, who deal with physically ill and
behavioral medicine patients. It can aid in the psychological assessment of these patients
and facilitate the steps required to formulate a comprehensive treatment plan. It provides
information regarding a patient's likely style of relating to health-care personnel,
problematic psychosocial attitudes and stressors, as well as an individual's similarity to
patients with psychosomatic complications or poor responses to either illness or treatment
interventions.
A handy screening tool, the MBHI™ test is especially useful for patients involved
in workmen's compensation situations, specialty clinics (for example, pain or stress), and
health maintenance programs. The simplicity of its administration, as well as its rapid
scoring and report services, enhance its value for routine use in outpatient clinics,
hospitals, and individual or group medical practices. The MBHI™ test is also suitable
for research applications.
NORMATIVE POPULATION
The most appropriate norm base. Little of diagnostic value can be learned from
measuring medical subjects against normal or psychiatric comparison populations.
Development of the MBHI was accomplished originally with a norm base of more than 2,500
representative medical patients. Specific disease scales were developed by subdividing
patients with the same illness. Similarly, scale measures were calculated and quantified
from actuarial base rate data rather than normalized scoring data.
SCALES
While most psychodiagnostic tools have been developed largely independently of clinical
theory, the MBHI™ test is rooted in a comprehensive theory and a wide range of
coordinated research. The MBHI provides scores on 20 scales in four broad categories of
assessment. Eight reflect basic coping styles: Introversive, Inhibited, Cooperative,
Sociable, Confident, Forceful, Respectful, Sensitive. Six provide descriptions of
psychogenic attitudes: Chronic Tension, Recent Stress, Premorbid Pessimism, Future
Despair, Social Alienation, Somatic Anxiety. The remaining six are for use only with
patients exhibiting specific disease syndromes. Three of these assess psychosomatic
correlates: Allergic Inclination, Gastrointestinal Susceptibility, and Cardiovascular
Tendency. Three others gauge prognostic indices: Pain Treatment Responsivity, Life Threat
Reactivity, and Emotional Vulnerability.
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LENGTH AND ADMINISTRATION TIME
The uncomplicated 150-item format of this medically-oriented inventory minimizes
fatigue and resistance. Most patients will be able to complete it in about 20 minutes.
NARRATIVE REPORT AVAILABILITY
The Interpretive Report is a 4-page document that begins with a profile organized for
ready configural analysis in broad areas of basic coping styles and psychogenic
attitudes, along with specific disease scales measuring psychosomatic correlates and
prognostic indices. A detailed narrative report speaks clearly to the patient's perception
of life stresses and somatic ailments. Additional sections discuss the extent to which
emotional factors complicate particular psychosomatic ailments, and help to predict
psychological complications associated with many diseases.
The MBHI is available through
Pearson Assessments at
1-800-627-7271 (voice) or 1-800-632-9011 (fax).
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