Factitious disorders in neurology: an analysis of reported cases.

BACKGROUND

Factitious disorder (FD) is the deliberate production or simulation of symptoms in order to adopt the sick role.

OBJECTIVE

The authors look at FD in the neurology setting.

METHOD

The authors examined documented, published cases.

RESULTS

FD cases in neurology are strikingly different from those in other specialties in terms of their demographics. Whereas the paradigm of FD in medicine as a whole is of the socially stable female healthcare worker, neurology continues to report largely the classic itinerant "Munchausen's" type.

DISCUSSION

The authors explore two possible explanations for this: either that female healthcare workers with FD do not present neurologically, or that, if they do, they are diagnosed with conversion disorder.