factitious disorders

The medical profession has known about factitious disorders for hundreds of years.

Originally, this term was used for all factitious disorders.

Many people who present factitious disorders crave sympathy and support because it was notably absent in childhood.

Dr. Feldman said most people with factitious disorders were "longing for nurturing, sympathy, care and concern that they feel unable to get in appropriate ways."

People who demonstrate factitious disorders often claim to have physical ailments or be recovering from the consequences of stalking, victimization, harassment, and sexual abuse.

Virtual factitious disorders."

(9) Factitious Disorders.

Factitious disorders should be distinguished from somatoform disorders, in which the patient is truly experiencing the symptoms and has no intention to deceive.

Factitious disorders, such as Munchausen syndrome, are diagnosed where symptoms are thought to be experienced (deliberately produced) and/or reported (feigned) for personal gain.

"Lately, whenever I speak on factitious disorders, 100 percent of the time somebody will raise their hand and tell me about such an experience with the Internet," he said.

There have always been people who faked illness for one reason or another, and for centuries doctors have known about such phony ailments, called factitious disorders.

The syndrome may occur in persons with other mental disorders such as schizophrenia, depressive disorders, toxic states, paresis, alcohol use disorders and factitious disorders.

In 1951, the British physician Richard Asher published an article describing three cases of patients whose factitious disorders led them to lie about their own states of health.

Ganser syndrome is currently classified under dissociative disorders, to which it moved in the DSM IV from the factitious disorders.

He has a Web site about factitious disorders (ourworld.compuserve.com/ homepages/MarcFeldman2) and a woman who visited the site E-mailed him to say she had a severe case of the disorder.

Of all patients in the hospital, only 1 percent of those on whom psychiatrists are asked to consult have factitious disorders, Dr. Feldman said, and 10 percent of those have Munchausen syndrome.

In 1951 a group of factitious disorders was named for Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchausen, a war hero who traveled around Germany in the 18th century, telling tall stories about his exploits.

Somatoform disorders are not the result of conscious malingering (fabricating or exaggerating symptoms for secondary motives) or factitious disorders (deliberately producing, feigning, or exaggerating symptoms) - sufferers perceive their plight as real.

"I've been alerted to about a dozen cases over the past several months, and it seems to be increasing in frequency," said Dr. Feldman, an expert on illnesses that people either feign or actually induce in themselves, which are called factitious disorders.

Factitious disorders: Factitious disorders are conditions in which physical and/or emotional symptoms are created in order to place the individual in the role of a patient or a person in need of help.

They might be motivated to perpetrate factitious disorders either as a patient or by proxy as a caregiver to gain any variety of benefits including attention, nurturance, sympathy, and leniency that are seen as not obtainable any other way.

Now, however, there is considered to be a wide range of factitious disorders, and the diagnosis of "Münchausen syndrome" is reserved for the most severe form, where the simulation of disease is the central activity of the affected person's life.

Factitious disorders are described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR (DSM) as psychological disorders involving the production of non-existent physical or psychological ailments to earn sympathy.

The development of factitious disorders in online venues is made easier by the availability of medical literature on the Internet, the anonymous and malleable nature of online identities, and the existence of communication forums established for the sole purpose of giving support to members facing significant health or psychological problems.