Talk:Factitious disorder

Miscellaneous comments
I had to edit the bit on malingering as no sources or evidence were offered. The article talked about what a physician may perceive, but this is subject and again no evidence was offered.

Dictionary.com talks about feigning illness - which I think is a better descriptor malingerer, rather than becoming academic as to "why" a person may malinger.

I have edited the article to make it more neutral. Acontributor 11:41, 8 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Dictionary entries are not evidence. -- Antaeus Feldspar 13:58, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Ganser's
Isn't Ganser Syndrome no longer considered factitious? Can someone clarify this? I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in the Wikipedia section on Ganser's, so one or the other needs to be corrected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.3.7.1 (talk) 05:18, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Could you please discuss...

 * The external link http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/factitious_disorders/hic_an_overview_of_factitious_disorders.aspx was removed from the article with the edit summary: "unsigned articles on pages with adverts is not good", however, while the article is marked copyright "the cleveland clinic", below that copyright line it offers links to Kathleen Franco, M.D., a psychiatrist, and David Friedman, M.D., a plastic surgeon. My reading of the excised link is that Franco and Friedman are the authors.  Barring all references with ads seems questionable to me.  Almost all newspaper references contain ads.


 * In another recent edit, with the edit summary links should be to scholoarly articles, several links were removed, including: -- which appears to be a reprint of the page about factitious disorder from the DSM-IV -- ie, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  I suggest that a reprint of the page from the famous DSM-IV meets all the requirement for scholarship.

I call on the contributor who made these excisions to return here and explain why they shouldn't be reverted. Geo Swan (talk) 23:48, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Factitious Disorder vs Malingering?
Does anyone know the difference between factitious disorder and malingering? From what I've read they appear to be the same...not sure if that is right though. Thanks.

In malingering the purpose of feigning the disease is to get a secondary gain (eg. getting paid for "getting injured at work"). In factitious disorder there is no actually attempt for secondary gain. It is more to get attention of sorts. AriaNo11 (talk) 23:42, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Two names for the same exact thing, they should be merged. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.197.20.137 (talk) 14:54, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
 * That's false. From DSM-IV: "Factitious Disorders are distinguished from acts of Malingering. In Malingering, the individual also produces the symptoms intentionally, but has a goal that is obviously recognizable when the environmental circumstances are known. For example, the intentional production of symptoms to avoid jury duty … would be classified as Malingering. … In contrast, in Factitious Disorder, the motivation is a psychological need to assume the sick role, as evidenced by an absence of external incentives for the behavior." Cresix (talk) 15:58, 26 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I have a female friend who, as I assumed, was play acting illnesses, but she's not acting . She actually lives in the ER at a hospital.? Wow! Is she really mentally sick, and is there a cure? She steals my meds, she has soo much legal process now for these symptoms. How does she get help? Worried about her, Mike Linker in Jefferson City, Missouri. Ty. Mikey222275 (talk) 01:19, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

Absolutely should not be merged
Münchhausen syndrome, factitious disorder and malingering are different disorders. While they may be difficult to differentiate, they are not the same. It is not the purpose of this article to detail these types of disorders but to discuss in detail each particular one. Moreover as Cresix explains in the preceding section above these disorders are different diagnoses based on different DSM-IV criteria. As a result there should be no such talk of merging any of these articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AriaNo11 (talk • contribs) 19:47, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. Do not merge these articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.255.1.225 (talk) 09:46, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Do not merge
Factitious disorders are fundamentally a mental problem, despite the repeated faking of symptoms there is no clear secondary gain. Of the factitious disorders, Munchausens is the most serious of the physical factitious disorders. Malingering is fundamentally different as it is a premeditated fraudulent behaviour for a clear seconday gain. Merging two articles that have two substantially different causes would increase confusion and decrease the clarity of the pages. As another user mentioned above, I also believe that the Cleveland Clinic (as well as the Mayo Clinic) are legitimate sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.43.188.208 (talk) 13:53, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Merge template removed
I agree that the articles should not be merged. A consensus has been reached, so I removed the merge template. -- momo  ricks  20:19, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Added "expert-subject" template
There is uncited information in several sections (including the lead, "Criteria", and "Treatment of Münchausen by proxy") that appears to be incorrect. I added the "expert-subject" because the article needs help and I'm concerned about readers being misinformed -- momo  ricks  20:40, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

"Factitious"
Merrimam Webster has a listing for factitious: "induced by deliberate human action with or without intention to produce a lesion or disease, e.g. factitial rectal lesions following irradiation, a factitial hyperthyroidism resulting from surreptitious ingestion of thyroid products". The first example suggests that it doesn't matter who is creating the lesion/disease, it could be health care professionals during iatrogenic effects of treatment. Lesion ( talk ) 21:07, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

That's the definition for factitial, the entry right before factitious in Merriam-Webster. This article is about a medical condition named factitious disorder. Stephlet 05:42, 8 April 2015 (UTC)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stephlet (talk • contribs)

Factitious disorder = ψευδοβουλσίτωσις = pseudobullshitosis
it means pseudo-illness, pseudo-disease — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.128.78.75 (talk) 11:53, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

Factitious Andrei Szoke's Pag
"Andrei Szoke's Page to FD", listed under External Sources, does not exist.

Can this be somebody's idea of a joke? David Lloyd-Jones (talk) 13:12, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi David Lloyd-Jones. It could be a joke, it could be a link that died. I deleted the link.  Lova Falk     talk   10:09, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Münchausen by Proxy, involuntary use
" Münchausen by proxy is the involuntary use of another individual ..." is probably misleading: what I understand is that the person using another individual does so involuntarily, which contradicts the definition, while the intended meaning could be that the other individual did not consent to be used in the first place but in my opinion this would need another phrasing, e. g. "Münchausen by proxy is the use of another individual to involuntarily play the patient role". 194.174.76.21 (talk) 11:04, 27 December 2017 (UTC) Marco Pagliero Berlin

"Münchausen" wrong spelling
The correct German spelling ist Münchhausen, with "Ü" and a second "H", while the simplified, standard English spelling is Munchausen. The article has mixed correct Munchausen and some Münchausen, which ist wrong under both points of view. 194.174.76.21 (talk) 11:28, 27 December 2017 (UTC) Marco Pagliero Berlin