However, the MMPI/MMPI-2 is rarely used to assess change in psychotherapy, since the MMPI’s scales tend to measure enduring personality traits, and most outcome studies involve short-term therapy. The MMPI/MMPI-2 changes support the belief that the maturation of personality is only achieved from years of effective treatment, and that brief treatment does not reach deeper levels of personality measured by that test. I have noticed in my work with patients in long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy, that the MMPI and the newer form, the MMPI-2 (MMPI/MMPI-2) showed profound changes to personality through out the years of treatment. MMPI/MMPI-2 Changes in Long-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

These results, using the MMPI/MMPI-2, support the validity of long-term psychotherapy. On the average, it took patients about 2 years to begin to make significant changes to their personalities, and they continued to improve for years. However, most of the scales changed significantly by M = 60.4 months (SD = 32 most p<.001). A subsample of 18 patients with 3 testings, showed little change at M = 24.9 months (SD= 17). Scales K and Es which measure ego strength, increased significantly (both p<.001). After M = 38.8 months (SD = 17.1) of treatment, scales F, Hs, D, Hy, Pd, Pt, Sc, Ma, and A, all significantly decreased to the normal range most were p <.001. The MMPI/MMPI-2 was tested with large dose therapy (long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy) with 55 polysymptomatic outpatients. The MMPI/MMPI-2, the most used and validated test of psychopathology, reacts poorly to 'Empirically Supported Treatments', which are usually less than 20 sessions.

Mmpi test-retest reliability