Introduction: Factitious syndromes

Factitious syndromes: Factitious disorders refer to any medical condition whereby a person feigns symptoms or otherwise fakes their illness in order to get some benefit. In factitious disorders, the person seeks attention or wants to be in the role of the patient. In cases where symptoms are feigned to get an economic benefit (e.g. insurance fraud, getting paid time off work, etc.), the disorder is more correctly called malingering. Somatoform disorders or psychosomatic symptoms are also different from factitious syndromes, because in these cases the person is not aware that their mind is causing the symptoms and is not conciously doing so with intent. Also different is hypochondriasis because the person does not want to be ill. One well-known name for factitious disorders is Munchhausen's syndrome, and particularly well-publicized is the very rare Munchhausen's syndrome by proxy where a mother intentionally makes her child sick in order to get attention.

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