Diagnostic Features
The essential feature of factitious disorder is the falsification of medical or psychological signs and symptoms in oneself or others that are associated with the identified deception. Individuals with factitious disorder can also seek treatment for themselves or another following induction of injury or disease. The diagnosis requires demonstrating that the individual is taking surreptitious actions to misrepresent, simulate, or cause signs or symptoms of illness or injury in the absence of obvious external rewards. Methods of illness falsification can include exaggeration, fabrication, simulation, and induction. While a preexisting medical condition may be present, the deceptive behavior or induction of injury associated with deception causes others to view such individuals (or another) as more ill or impaired,
and this can lead to excessive clinical intervention. Individuals with factitious disorder might, for example, report feelings of depression and suicidality following the death of a spouse despite the death not being true or the individual’s not having a spouse; deceptively report episodes of neurological symptoms (e.g., seizures, dizziness, or blacking out); manipulate a laboratory test (e.g., by adding blood to urine) to falsely indicate an abnormality; falsify medical records to indicate an illness; ingest a substance (e.g., insulin or warfarin) to induce an abnormal laboratory result or illness; or physically injure themselves or induce illness in themselves or another (e.g., by injecting fecal material to produce an abscess or to induce sepsis).
Associated Features Supporting Diagnosis
Individuals with factitious disorder imposed on self or factitious disorder imposed on another are at risk for experiencing great psychological distress or functional impairment by causing harm to themselves and others. Family, friends, and health care professionals are also often adversely affected by their behavior. Factitious disorders have similarities to substance use disorders, eating disorders, impulse-control disorders, pedophilic disorder, and some other established disorders related to both the persistence of the behavior and the intentional efforts to conceal the disordered behavior through deception. Whereas some aspects of factitious disorders might represent criminal behavior (e.g., factitious disorder imposed on another, in which the parent’s actions represent abuse and maltreatment of a child), such criminal behavior and mental illness are not mutually exclusive. The diagnosis of factitious disorder emphasizes the objective identification of falsification of signs and symptoms of illness, rather than an inference about intent or possible underlying motivation. Moreover, such behaviors, including the induction of injury or disease, are associated with deception.
