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.