Research Impact Trauma Research Today - Paid Participation

[KGIARRATANO]

Contribute to the field of psychology by participating in research on PTSD symptoms.

You will be paid for participation. The researchers in this study are interested in examining how individuals fake a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder dissociative subtype (PTSD-D). We will ask you to fill out questionnaires and will provide directions for how you should complete the study. You will be asked about trauma history and symptoms. If answering questions of this kind is upsetting to you, you are free to withdraw from the study at any point.

Survey Link

 

[Weemie]

I'm curious about the validity of this study's premise, I'm not gonna lie (pun intended). By its very nature you are essentially interrogating participants in what is at its core a scientific experiment, on whether or not they are faking PTSD? What criteria have you come up with to verify that any one person is "faking it"?

There is plenty of science out there on deception && most of it suggests that the human ability to detect deception is exceedingly limited. Even people in the CIA have gone on record saying there is no infallible method to determining whether someone is lying.

Have you cracked the code on this?

 

[joeylittle]

By its very nature you are essentially interrogating participants in what is at its core a scientific experiment, on whether or not they are faking PTSD? What criteria have you come up with to verify that any one person is "faking it"?

I'm not sure they are saying precisely what you are assuming; you don't need to be faking anything in order to start the study; there are several points in the process (so says the disclosure behind the link) where people are funneled into different groups for different kinds of study.

It's possible the study is dealing with suggestibility and influence - so, how easily someone can be led to certain assumptions.

It seems timely to me, as the current rate of dissociative disorders (and other behaviorally observable conditions) presenting themselves among the teenage population is cause for....alarm? Study, for sure.

 

[Weemie]

you don't need to be faking anything in order to start the study;

Yeah, I reread it and I understand what they're trying to say. However, I am still highly skeptical of this, because at a certain point, whoever is participating in this study, by virtue of the nature of the study, will be identified as either a "genuine case" or a "factitious case," right?

Otherwise the results would be meaningless. It would be a collection of people who say they have PTSD describing their symptoms, and the test-givers would otherwise be like, "well, they say they're genuine, so they are." At a certain point that's what this comes down to.

I understand that there's absolutely a rise in factitious disorder in young adults && Tik Tok trends and the like (I happen to have a disorder that is commonly faked, DDNOS, && on Reddit I got accused of faking on a Tik Tok post that I'd commented on, merely because I mentioned I have it, not because I was displaying symptoms.)

But this study doesn't really seem to be constructed very well & it could be very potentially triggering for its participants to then be sorted into "factitious" or "genuine." Seeing as how a significant portion of us have trauma around being disbelieved when we disclose.

&& this also opens up a whole host of other issues, such as the credentials of the test-givers to actually diagnose someone with factitious disorder.

 

[Friday]

I took it. It was interesting / very well done… for someone with my history, which is not usually the case. At the end it prompted for a zoom meeting, which I declined. I have no idea if I fell into the fictitious or actual parameters for the algorithm. PTSD + ADHD prolly has at least a few wacky outlier responses, and that’s before we account for an ‘uncommon’ (in this county) trauma history.

 

[KGIARRATANO]

I took it. It was interesting / very well done… for someone with my history, which is not usually the case. At the end it prompted for a zoom meeting, which I declined. I have no idea if I fell into the fictitious or actual parameters for the algorithm. PTSD + ADHD prolly has at least a few wacky outlier responses, and that’s before we account for an ‘uncommon’ (in this county) trauma history.

Hi, thank you participating. Meeting via zoom is entirely voluntary - I appreciate you assisting in participation. Please let me know if you did not receive your compensation.

I'm not sure they are saying precisely what you are assuming; you don't need to be faking anything in order to start the study; there are several points in the process (so says the disclosure behind the link) where people are funneled into different groups for different kinds of study.

It's possible the study is dealing with suggestibility and influence - so, how easily someone can be led to certain assumptions.

It seems timely to me, as the current rate of dissociative disorders (and other behaviorally observable conditions) presenting themselves among the teenage population is cause for....alarm? Study, for sure.

Hi, thank you for your response. You are correct that people are funneled into different groups. Legal proceedings utilize a diagnosis of PTSD more than any other psychological construct, and we are more interested in patterns of how people may fake PTSD so we can better help those experiencing trauma symptoms.

Yeah, I reread it and I understand what they're trying to say. However, I am still highly skeptical of this, because at a certain point, whoever is participating in this study, by virtue of the nature of the study, will be identified as either a "genuine case" or a "factitious case," right?

Otherwise the results would be meaningless. It would be a collection of people who say they have PTSD describing their symptoms, and the test-givers would otherwise be like, "well, they say they're genuine, so they are." At a certain point that's what this comes down to.

I understand that there's absolutely a rise in factitious disorder in young adults && Tik Tok trends and the like (I happen to have a disorder that is commonly faked, DDNOS, && on Reddit I got accused of faking on a Tik Tok post that I'd commented on, merely because I mentioned I have it, not because I was displaying symptoms.)

But this study doesn't really seem to be constructed very well & it could be very potentially triggering for its participants to then be sorted into "factitious" or "genuine." Seeing as how a significant portion of us have trauma around being disbelieved when we disclose.

&& this also opens up a whole host of other issues, such as the credentials of the test-givers to actually diagnose someone with factitious disorder.

Hi, thanks for your comment. To clarify, individuals experiencing trauma symptoms and diagnosed with PTSD are not sorted into a "factitious" or "genuine" group; they are all in the genuine group. As I responded above, we are interested in patterns of how people may fake PTSD so we can better help justice/fairness in the legal system for those experiencing trauma symptoms. To do this, we need genuine trauma survivors. I appreciate your feedback and will clarify in the future in my description.

 

[Weemie]

To clarify, individuals experiencing trauma symptoms and diagnosed with PTSD are not sorted into a "factitious" or "genuine" group; they are all in the genuine group.

On what basis would you sort me and Friday into the genuine group? Because we said so? Then your study has no meaning as anyone can say they have trauma symptoms and PTSD. That’s my point. I have a diagnosis of PTSD, do I need to provide this to you at any point? It doesn’t seem like it because then it wouldn’t be anonymous.

 

[joeylittle]

Because we said so? Then your study has no meaning as anyone can say they have trauma symptoms and PTSD. That’s my point.

Without knowing the entire structure of the study, there's no way to know whether or not it's well-built.

And, important to remember that PLENTY of studies have methodologies that can be picked apart...I mean, the entire field of mental health is riddled with the problems that arise from a partial dependence on self-disclosure. Anyone can lie. Anyone can be mis-diagnosed. I don't think that means that no-one should even try to study aspects of mental illness...

Suffice it to say, this particular study (and it's representative) have gone through the necessary steps to legally/ethically run the study, and they are simply asking for volunteers. The initial disclosure statement on the link makes all the terms clear (including anonymity).

Do you find the topic particularly triggering? Honest question.

 

[Weemie]

Do you find the topic particularly triggering? Honest question.

I've been called a liar my entire life, so probably. Even when people are staring at the evidence in front of them they will continue to insist that what I'm saying "isn't right." I think a study that tries to determine "who's faking PTSD" is not something that can deliver a meaningful result, because humans are not good at detecting deception && this has been scientifically proven over and over again. "If you do X, you're lying, according to this study," is only going to be utilized against people in a harmful manner, because I guarantee you it will be applied to people who are telling the truth.

 

[joeylittle]

"If you do X, you're lying, according to this study," is only going to be utilized against people in a harmful manner, because I guarantee you it will be applied to people who are telling the truth.

That's a very fair point.

Spoiler: just an anecdote about a lawyer and my mental health

A bunch of years ago I had a trip-and-fall in an active construction area of a city, and it was a fairly significant injury with long-term consequences. I was really certain that it wasn't my fault, there was a piece of pipe laid across a sidewalk without anything marking it, and it was rather indistinguishable from the stones under it. Anyway, these things can take years. But shortly before the fall, I had JUST started actually disclosing my trauma shit to a (new to me) therapist....and when I was laid up after surgery, and dealing with some kinds of physical pain that were pretty triggering for me, PTSD just amped WAY up.

At some point, my lawyer is going through all of my medical records. Like, all of them. And I'll never forget the day when he called me into a meeting, very agitated, and said "what's this about having PTSD?". I explained it wasn't so much a result of the accident, it was exacerbated by the accident, but came from a different source. And he kept looking at me like I had suddenly become a toxic waste sludge pool of a client....because of something that had absolutely nothing to do with the case he was handling, but it would have everything to do with the other side dismantling my creditability around this very legitimate injury I sustained, and it's consequences to my life.

I hated that the solution was for him to just ignore anything at all that pertained to how this accident disrupted managing my only-just-recently managed MDD, and magnified the PTSD, and those things didn't make me suddenly turn into a 'bad client'. Eventually he called down, and eventually the thing was settled...but long story short? It sucked to be ashamed of something I was working so hard to just f*cking accept and live with.

It's not the same as the shit you've dealt with, but sort of parallels it in a small way. I do hear where you're coming from.

 

[Weemie]

It's not the same as the shit you've dealt with, but sort of parallels it in a small way. I do hear where you're coming from.

Thanks Joey!

I'm genuinely not trying to start shit but yah, especially in a place like this where so many of us have trauma around being disbelieved. Like, for me it was actual trauma. I was berated by a police officer for 2 hours for "filing a false police report." They found video evidence && declined to pursue an investigation against the guy.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was hospitalized and a nurse, looking at my diagnosis in my chart, looking at my medical history, looking at Google (she Googled my story to check if it was true?) she still was like "mmm, this doesn't seem right." Because she had never heard of the therapy I was going thru, she couldn't comprehend what I was telling her, and she just straight out dismissed me && was skeptical the entire time.

That's so damaging. Especially because due to my experiences my brain is basically a pile of noodles anyway && I often think I am just crazy and psychotic and I doubt my own reality all the time, ALL the time. I've had multiple therapists accuse me of lying, yell at me, kick me out. Multiple police officers (I had another incident where a cop said I was lying because they called the police on me for having a flashback. As in, no event had happened, but I was extremely high on drugs and repeating "I was raped" over and over again -> I was a minor at the time, as well.)

Now imagine if there was some kind of "faking PTSD" test that they gave me && because of the nature of my trauma and my disorders (RAD, ADHD, TBI) which means I am incredibly neurodivergent && my trauma responses do not look like other people's responses. There is no data on how people like me process the world because there are no studies on adults who were diagnosed with RAD as children. My fundamental ability to form human relationships is impaired, which means that tests like this will produce chaotic and inconsistent results.

I can just imagine someone telling me, "Oh, you failed the PTSD veracity test," while straight up looking at my damaged leg & internal organs.

And due to the nature of how human beings cannot detect deception any better than the toss of a coin, and because you can't sort out the data that you're getting anyway (as anyone could be lying, how would you know? What if you get a bunch of liars and call them "genuine" && when you take the Faking PTSD Test the parameters are entirely wrong because they're based off of liar's information?)

I just think that this kind of thing will be more harmful than helpful. As abuse victims we are constantly gaslit && told to be liars, crazy, etc.

 

[Huxley]

If it were as easy as making lists of “this is real ptsd” and “this is fake ptsd” then who’d need therapists? A diagnosis (as in most medical fields ) is an educated guess made by a qualified someone who has first-hand experience and knowledge of a person.

I understand that lawyers really want to be able to “weed out” people they think are faking things for financial gain, but it’s just not that simple.

My PTSD doesn’t look like a lot of people’s PTSD even here, but that’s because every individual has individualized experiences that got them here. It doesn’t mean I’m a fake. It means my history was different.