Diagnosis And Factitious Disorder

Diagnoses in medicine involving deception are some of the most difficult phenomenon’s to detect: factitious disorder, malingering, Munchausen syndrome, and Munchausen by proxy. As a starting point for diagnosis and treatment, doctors rely on reported symptoms in order to accurately detect the problems with the patients. When patients give misleading information, consciously or unconsciously, doctors and physicians are unable to accurately diagnose the patient (Dyer & Feldman, 2007). This phenomenon is commonly known as factitious disorder, which the “DSM-IV offers two inclusion criteria: physical symptoms are intentionally produced, and the patient’s motivation is to assume the patient role” (Krahn, Li, & O’Connor, 2003). Factitious disorders (FD) are characterized by the deliberate faking of physical or psychological signs and symptoms. Although some of the reports symptoms are false, in some cases the symptoms are real only self-induced.
In relation to other psychological and psychiatric disorders, it is very rare to diagnosis factitious disease; however it may be extremely prevalent in our health care system. “Factitious disorder is an uncommon, but probably underdiagnosed, condition …show more content…
The learning theory suggests that the only response a person knows is the behaviors learned early in life (Bass & Halligan, 2014). Also, the psychodynamic theory focuses on the pressures and conflicts between the child and the parents that results in the “need to be loved or cared for, the need to deceive, the need for revenge, the need to feel in control, the need for mastery over abusive parents, and the need to be punished or hurt” (Dyer & Feldman, 2007). The need for nurturing and attention are the main motivation for deception. While no one of these theories excuse factitious behavior, these theories/explanations make it easier to understand and help individuals with