Factitious Disorder

Question: What is the difference between Munchausen's syndrome and factitious disorder? Is Munchausen's just the most severe form of factitious or is there an actual difference?

Answer: technically nothing... they are used interchangeably and actually the DSM-IV that psychhologists and psychiatrists use doesnt have munchausen listed, but usually when one mentions munchausen they are talking about someone feigning physical symptoms and factitious is broader to include psych symptoms as well.

Question: Is Factitious Disorder Considered A Neurosis or A Psychosis? I was reading about it today and it seems like a really severe disorder. Is it considered a neurosis or psychosis or could it fall under both, just depends on the individual severity?

Answer: not a psychosis factitious disorder is with either physical or with psychological symptoms, factitious means false

Question: what is difference between factitious disorder and manchausan syndrome by proxy?

Answer: A factitious disorder is purposely feigned by the patient him/herself. A real illness or injury is purposely created in someone close to the patient (e.g., a child) in Manchausan's by Proxy. ~Dr. B.~

Question: Hypertension and headaches may be triggered by stress. These conditions are referred to as...? A. hypochondria B. psychosomatic illnesses C. factitious disorders D. psychophysiological illnesses E. malingering

Answer: b

Question: Classification Error: Help? If one has a substantial amount of critical traits from three different mental illnesses; but, never exhibits all crucial traits in one particular category, how can one classify them? Particular Example: 1) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder <Clinically Diagnosed> - Obsessive Compulsive handwashing - Abnormal anxiety issues - Avoids human contact - Things must be just "right" - Emotional detachment 2) Psychosis - Auditory hallucinations - Delusional beliefs - Thought disorder 3) Anti-social Personality Disorder - Lack of remorse or shame - Fantastic and uninviting behaviour - Pathological lying * May exhibit a factitious disorder. In this scenario, the patient exhibits an anxiety disorder; however, any of the other cannot be categorized in this group. How can one categorize such a case?

Answer: Is this strictly for a DSM class? Just do a primary diagnosis on axis one, a "rule out" secondary if needed on axis one, then indicate axis two features but needs more longitudinal data. It is just a preliminary diagnosis anyway, right? If not for a class but for a practice question then just know that diagnosis is good for something, and it is to know what to do in terms of treatment. "Symptom clusters" are more helpful than diagnoses really anyway. Look at what is most prominent and treat it. If this is for yourself or someone you know, don't try to do this yourself as it is just confusing to go through the DSM on your own, it just isn't really helpful. Connect with a good psychotherapist you think is a decent fit. You are having a tough time with worry and some associated things and that is all you really need to know. Heck, that is all a clinician needs to know to get things going too...specific technical diagnostic info is not all that helpful anyway unless you need to be aware of something like trauma (tough stuff from the past that still bugs you). One rule out given this info might be Aspergers too...developmental thing with anxiety that is significant. I am not getting anti social diagnosis here...these people are creepy like criminals, take advantage of other to not feel vulnerable. Doesn't fit. This is more anxiety and social development.

Question: thoughts about Maunchausen syndrom ? Münchausen syndrome is a psychiatric disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma in order to draw attention or sympathy to themselves. It is in a class of disorders known as factitious disorders which involve "illnesses" whose symptoms are either self-induced or falsified by the patient. It is also sometimes known as hospital addiction syndrome or hospital hopper syndrome. do you think this can be considered a mental illness? how common do you think it is? do you have it? genral omments towards it? just intreasted really. i got that of wiki, just the addiction to being in hospitial,seeing gp's and emergencey services ect.

Answer: Why, yes I think that Münchausen Syndrome would infact be considered a Mental Illness. Because most people don't normally want to cause themselves pain just so that they could get put into a hospital. I have never heard of it before, but it's very interesting indeed. I'm not sure how many people have it, because the people that do have it use alias, and they go to different hospitals so they can be undetcted. Munchausen syndrome isn't the same as hypochondria. People with hypochondria truly believe they are sick, whereas people with Munchausen aren't sick but they want to be. Munchausen also isn't the same as malingering, in which someone pretends to be sick in order to get out of work, win a lawsuit or otherwise benefit financially. And in Munchausen syndrome by proxy, someone makes another person ill — usually involving a parent harming a child — in order to win sympathy Here's a great site on it: http://www.ohiohealth.com/bodymayo.cfm?x… No, I don't have it. Ugh.. at least I think I don't.. lol O_o I think that it's a very interesting disease! that's why I looked it up, I read the wikipedia article and found that other one. This is a mental illness though, and I'm extremely interested in anything mentally related though. Most people hate hospitals, seeing GP's and EMT's. But I do like seeing them, but that may be because I love anything medical and plan to be a doctor, but these people that purposely harm themselves do infact have a mental illness, even if they're doing it just to see a GP that makes it seem worse.

Question: How can you tell when someone is faking black outs, mild seizures, and panic attacks.? Okay I know this is a very sensitive subject. I don't mean to say that epileptic patients fake their symptoms. I'm talking about the jerks that are not sick at all that fake these ailments. Let me explain. There is a girl that I know about the age of 18. She is very dramatic and likes to draw attention to herself. oh! and is a compulsive liar. TRUST ME. I catch her in the act all of the time..It's ridiculous. She makes up complete stories to make you feel bad for her, and changes her stories according to who she is talking to. If that wasn't even enough..recently she has been having "black outs", "seizures", things like that..and it seems that all these symptoms occur when she doesn't have something go her way. She constantly does it in front of her boyfriend when she's mad or she just wants attention. Sometimes she "stops breathing" for minutes at a time and he calls me freaking out (i have medical background) and when I tell him to check her pulse it's NORMAL! (if you're not breathing=no oxygen= heart rate goes up) And it's funny that when she "blacks out" our has a "mild seizure" (she zones out and doesn't respond to you) and I tell them to take her to the hospital and right before they get there she wakes up and she's fine yayie. -_-;; It just makes me so mad to find someone who will fake all of these things when there are people out there who are really suffering from this. There were a couple of times also where she supposedly had a full on seizure (but i wasn't there to see if it was real or not).The way everyone described it she was on the ground shaking, this was after she drank alcohol. She has no medical symptoms, if anything I think it's mental. I think she has factitious disorder or Munchausen syndrome. Well whatever it is I want to find out! is there any way to PHYSICALLY check if someone is actually legitametly hyperventilating or having black outs and panic attacks? You guys may think that I'm being a jerk for thinking that this girl is faking but trust me she does a lot of things for attention. I'm just tired of her taking advantage of the people around her.After she has a "fit" (like just recently she was hyperventilating and screaming like she was possessed) after people freak out and pay attention to her and see if she's okay, all of a sudden she's fine! and off to do whatever activity we were about to go and do. I'll answer any more questions if you guys think that she is actually having these symptoms for real. And if there is some sort of disorder that has all of these things wrapped up in one, by all means educate me. But I am 99% sure that she is faking these things, consciously or not. Half of me thinks she just googled the symptoms and faked it. I know you guys think I should know because I have a lot of medical background but seizures and panic attacks and those things are not my focus. But seeing this girl I've known for 8+ years doing this..it makes me sick. Thanks for your input you guys, all of your answers helped. I just wanted to clarify that she has only had a couple of so called "seizures" (not the mild ones. The ones where she is actually shaking on the ground *clonic tonic or grand mal*) I wasn't there for either of them, but the way it sounded it was not real. I think because I expressed that I thought she was faking she completely stopped that nonesense. These days she does the panic attacks and crazy hyperventilating. Honestly she does certain symptoms for certain audiences. But I think she's focusing on the panic attacks because it's more believable.

Answer: Wow, well if she is faking it, she's got some nerve. Personally I don't care if she has some other mental disorder that causes her to act like this, it just pisses me off reading it. I have Epilepsy and when i go into a grande mal seizure i can't breathe, when i come to i breathe really heavily trying to get as much oxygen back in my lungs, my pulse is racing and by touching my chest you can actually feel my heart racing. Not only that but if she stops breathing her lips would turn blue, she would wake up pale, and especially if its a full body seizure (its like running a marathon) she would be incredibly sore, dizzy, exhausted, she would have bit her tongue at LEAST once (I've bitten my tongue up to 4 times during a single seizure and i can't recall a single grande mal seizure where i haven't bitten my tongue), she would also have a lot of trouble moving, like lack of coordination, also there's no way she would be full of energy after that, she should also have dilated pupils. On top of all that "joy" if she was genuinely hyperventilating during a full body seizure she should be making a strange noise through her nose. Kinda like when your sick and you try to breathe in/out of your nose when its plugged except it will sound more forced and be much quicker (like more frequent) and a lot louder. Also in some cases (not all, but some) people will lose control of their bowels. However, zoning out is a symptom of seizures, Drinking alcohol can bring on seizures as well.

Question: Munchausen syndrome? Please don't flame me for this. I -know- I have munchausen syndrome or a factitious disorder. I know I could not and will not ever confess this to my family or a therapist. While I am ready to control this and be more considerate of what I put my family through I do not want to completely stop and get better. I managed to get falsly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, aspergers syndrome, a seizure disorder, a tic disorder, ovarian cysts and severe migraines. I have overdosed to the point of causing a heart block and spent a week in ICU. I have self injured to the point that in my life I have had nearly 200 stitches. I am very familiarized with medical terms, illnesses, psychiatry..because I obsess and study these things. I am not proud of this but it is what I am unfortunately. Does anyone out there go through what I go through or do what I do on any scale? I know there are people like me. Will anyone talk? I don't expect anyone to admit it here. Email me Rae_Of_Sunshin3@yahoo.com

Answer: i understand what you are saying. I dont believe many people have this disorder, but i believe that many people have traits of Munchausen syndrome. I can understand why you are so hesitant, about talking about it because it can make you look like a fraud, and it takes the innocence out of the fake disorder that you have. there have been many times in my life where I have been interested in different types of mental disorders, and as sick as it sound have wanted to experience the disorder, or have the title of the disorder. I dont really know why, but for me it has something to do with attention, and not just attention, but wanting to be unique. the funny thing I found is that I want to be diagnosed with the disorder, but when i see on a first hand basis on how bad a disorder is I am then glad that I dont have it. I dont have Munchausen syndrome, but I can bet that it is more common than most doctors think, because so many people are scared to come forward with it. even though you do not have some of the othere mental disorders that you have been diagnosed with, it obvoious that you have some sort of physcological conflit. I have gotten much better with my traits of Munchausen syndrome, but i really dont now how , I think I just started to get more self confidence, and started getting more attention, and I kind of grew out of it. I think the best thing you should do is talk to a therapist about it. Make sure you find one that you can trust and one that will not judge. The therapist should repect you honesty about the situation. when you admit that you have this disorder, it is tought, most people are scared to do this because they feel they will be look down upon. being honest will be a big step. GOOD LUCK

Question: Non-Feminists, Do you think that modern Feminism is a bizarre form of Maunchausen syndrome...? Maunchausen syndr. (NOT by proxy wherein children are used to gain sympathy) is a peculiar psychiatric factitious disorder where a patient feigns symptoms in order to receive medical attention or sympathy from others. These patients are aware that they're making their symptoms up, but they love the attention (secondary gain) they get out of it. Often these patients have a history of abuse or mistreatment earlier in their lives. Doesn't this seem awfully reminiscent of the victim complex that modern Feminists have and the recurring theme of bad relationships with men that these women have had?

Answer: I think their plot is much more malicious than simple attention seeking behavior. Addiction to male attention is your normal woman. Modern feminists are more about making men second class citizens. They only care about getting attention so that attention is drawn away from issues that may be detrimental to their agenda.... so that statistics such as women being the source of more domestic violence than men can be swept under the rug.

Question: What would you do if you suspected a good friend of Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy? Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP), a type of factitious disorder, is a mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick. People with MSP assume the role of a sick person indirectly by producing or lying about illness in another person under their care, usually a child under 6 years of age. However, cases have been reported of adult victims of MSP. (The term "by proxy" means "through a substitute.") A child not an adult

Answer: Could you please provide more details? Is this a parent and child you are referring to? I will assume so. Munchhausen by proxy is a form of abuse that should be reported to your local children's aid. This is a serious disorder that often ends with a parent instigating illness in a dependent through such means as poisoning etc. As Canadian citizens, we are legally responsible for reporting suspected cases of abuse. Document your experiences with this individual, call your local CAS and have a report written up. Although they most likely will not follow up immediately, they will have it on record should it be brought to their attention in the future.