Lesson 1: Clinical Disorders – Part B

Introduction

In the lesson content you will come across some terms in maroon color that are bolded. Look them up in the course Glossary.

Factitious Disorders
There are three branches to the sub-group of clinical disorders referred to as factitious: Munchausen syndrome, malingering, and general factitious disorder. Please make note of the subtle differences among them.

Individuals with factitious disorder exaggerate complaints, induce symptoms, or pretend they have an illness. They do this to get noticed – to get attention from others and to lessen any expectations placed on them. Such individuals are not faking their disorders to get insurance money or drugs although this may result from their actions. Factitious disorders often resemble Munchausen syndrome as some patients consciously imitate specific symptoms of an illness by traumatizing their skin, injecting themselves with insulin, or causing an allergic reaction in themselves by purposefully being around or consuming a known allergen to which they are sensitive.

Individuals with factitious disorder seek medical attention, but they will sabotage their own treatment with self-induced or self-perpetuated disease. Such patients differ from individuals with Munchausen syndrome because they generally feign only one illness and act on this urge only during times of major psychosocial stress. Unlike individuals with Munchausen syndrome, those with factitious disorder do not tend to visit one hospital or physician after another.