The study by Moskowitz, Lewis, Ito, and Ehrmentraut (1999) from the Journal of Clinical Psychology attests to the old adage that MMPI-2 profiles are more clearly understood when the context of the assessment is clear. The authors compared the MMPI-2 profiles of a sample of 36 persons who were found NGRI with a sample of 35 who were civilly committed to inpatient psychiatric facilities. The goal of the research was to determine if the people who had been found NGRI were functioning differently from those who had been committed to psychiatric facilities.

The main thesis of this study-whether persons claiming to be NGRI are different psychologically from those who are civilly committed, though true, is only partially verified by the results obtained. The results of the study are more likely from differences between the NGRI sample and the civil commitment sample in length of confinement and possibly, treatment obtained during incarceration.

The length of confinement was almost six years for the NGRI sample and two years for the mental health sample. In order to make such a concurrent comparison it would be necessary to assess these different groups when the motivational and situational factors were held constant. Because of the noted differences between length of time since the initial commitment the results raise more questions than they answer concerning whether these groups show personality differences.

All is not lost, however. The study does show useful and interesting results. That persons who plead NGRI at trial were subsequently found not to have psychotic symptoms but rather appeared, as a group, to show more characteristics of a personality disorder is an important finding. Still, we do not know whether these individuals show these "residual" personality problems and no symptoms of psychosis because of subsequent treatment or whether they were present all along. It would be more useful to compare an NGRI sample with a civilly committed sample at the time of trial or commitment. This would allow the researcher to examine the likely motivational differences that operate in the two conditions.

Moskowitz, J. L., Lewis, R. J., Ito, M. S., & Ehrmentraut, J. (1999). MMPI-2 profiles of NGRI and civil patients, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 555, 659-668.