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Neurological syndromes in factitious disorder
1Department of Psychiatry, Universitätsklinikum Benjamin Franklin, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
|May 1, 1996
Summary
Factitious disorder, including Munchausen syndrome, involves intentionally faking illness. This study found neurological presentations of factitious disorder may be more common than previously thought.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Factitious disorder involves intentional feigning of physical or psychological symptoms.
- Munchausen syndrome, a well-known type, is characterized by chronic illness and repeated hospitalizations.
Observation:
- This study assessed the frequency and phenomenology of factitious disorder presenting as neurological syndromes.
- Five out of 1538 neurology inpatients were diagnosed with factitious disorder feigning neurological syndromes.
- Four of these patients exhibited the classic Munchausen syndrome variant.
Findings:
- Patients displayed characteristic psychopathological features such as self-discharge, aggressive behavior, pseudologia phantastica, and hospital wandering.
- A diagnosis of personality disorder was frequently co-occurring according to DSM-III-R criteria.
- Factitious disorder presenting with neurological syndromes occurred in 0.3% of neurology inpatients.
Implications:
- Factitious disorder with neurological manifestations may be more prevalent than generally assumed.
- The findings support the frequent co-occurrence of factitious disorder and personality disorders.
- This highlights the importance of considering factitious disorder in neurological differential diagnoses.