Factitious Disorder & Dissociative Disorder

Factitious Disorder

  • Purposely faking physical symptoms
  • May actually induce physical symptoms or just pretend to have them
  • No obvious external gains
    • Only external gain may be benefit of “sick role” (e.g., sympathy)
    • Distinguished from malingering, in which physical symptoms are faked for the purpose of achieving a concrete objective (e.g., getting paid time off, avoiding military service)

DSM-5 Criteria: Factitious Disorder

  • Falsification of physical or psychological signs or symptoms
  • Individual presents self as ill or injured
  • Deceptive behavior is evident in absence of external rewards
  • Not otherwise explained

Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another

  • More commonly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy
  • Inducing symptoms in another person
    • Typically a caregiver induces symptoms in a dependent (e.g. child)
  • Purpose = receive attention or sympathy

Dissociative Disorder

  • Severe alterations or detachments from reality
  • Affect identity, memory, or consciousness
  • Depersonalization – distortion in perception of one’s body or experience (e.g., feeling like your own body isn’t real)
  • Derealization – losing a sense of the external world (e.g., sense of living in a dream)
  • Types of DSM-5 dissociative disorders
    • Depersonalization/derealization disorder
    • Dissociative amnesia
    • Dissociative trance disorder
    • Dissociative identity disorder