All You Need To Know About Factitious Disorder

Factitious disorder, previously known as Munchausen Syndrome is associated with a deep desire to get attention and sympathy. A person suffering from a factitious disorder usually creates fake symptoms and pretends to appear severely sick. He/she is often willing to undergo tests and medical procedures for fake symptoms. Factitious disorder by proxy is another condition where a disease is imposed on a person by someone else. Often, a parent may impose symptoms of sickness on his/her children in this condition. In this article, you will learn about the types of the disorder, its symptoms, causes, diagnosis, and treatment options. You will also get to know about the risk factors associated with this condition.

What Is Factitious Disorder?

Factitious disorder is a mental health condition where a person creates or exaggerates the physical symptoms of illnesses. Such individuals fake illnesses mostly to seek attention or affection. They enjoy the positive feeling of being taken care of. Factitious disorder is often a coping mechanism for patients to deal with stressful situations.

The person might feign symptoms of illnesses, purposely falls ill, or even injure himself/herself. In some cases, one person imposes fake sickness on another, usually elderly parents, children, or even pets. This is known as factitious disorder by proxy.

Types of Factitious Disorders

There are four primary types of factitious disorders.

1. Factitious disorder with mostly psychological symptoms like confusion, hallucination, hearing voices, experiencing things that are not there, and bizarre behaviour. The symptom is similar to that of schizophrenia.

2. Factitious disorder with mostly physical symptoms like chest pain, stomach issues, fever, and back pain

3. Factitious disorder with psychological & physical symptoms

4. Factitious disorder by proxy, where a person fakes disease for another person

Symptoms

Some warning signs of factitious disorder include the following:

• Symptoms that are uncontrollable and often increase/change after the treatment begins

• Symptoms that relapse immediately after the doctor feels that they are improving

• A patient has extensive knowledge of medical procedures, terminologies, and hospitals without any medical degree

• May have surgical scars

• Appearance of new symptoms if test results come negative

• Symptoms increase in the presence of others

• Willing to undergo any test or surgery

• Visits multiple doctors and hospitals

Causes & Risk Factors

The exact cause of factitious disorder is still unknown. However, traumatic childhood experiences and stressful life situations can cause this. Here are some of the risk factors:

• Childhood trauma from physical/emotional/sexual abuse

• Severe illness and hospitalisation during childhood

• Loss of a loved one

• Childhood experience of getting care during illness

• Lack of self-esteem

• Personality disorder

• Depression

How Common Are Factitious Disorders?

Statistics revealing the precise prevalence of this disease remain unavailable. However, the most common estimate is 0.6%-3%. It is more common among women and people with this condition are mostly unmarried.

Diagnosis

It is quite difficult to diagnose this disease. Usually, doctors do the required tests and procedures related to the symptoms. If the results come out negative, the doctor may refer the person to a psychologist. Once the mental health expert excludes all the physical symptoms, he/she concludes this is a factitious disorder.

Treatment

Treatment usually involves behaviour modification. Talking to the person diagnosed with factitious disorder and trying to heal his/her internal trauma often plays a crucial role in treatment. In case of factitious disorder by proxy, the main aim of the healthcare professional is to ensure the victim’s safety.