sensitive as to resent the slightest irritation, appears, perhaps, more surprising than that the gastric mucous membrane should occasionally be subject to intense excitement at the presence of various articles of food. We seem to expect the skin to resist pressure and irritation as one of its functions, and are therefore surprised when the phenomena of factitious urticaria occur. There is no do...

In neuropsychological practice, individuals often present with evidence of excessive cognitive complaints or invalid test performances indicative of symptom exaggeration; however, clinicians often struggle with how to diagnose these cases once they have been identified. Difficulties in subsuming these individuals within existing DSM-IV diagnoses such as Malingering, Factitious Disorder, and Con...

responses to, or refractoriness to, standard therapy. Also, doctors are unlikely to diagnose factitious illness until all other diagnostic possibilities have been exhausted. It is highly likely that the true incidence of factitious illness is underestimated,1 partly as doctors are generally unwilling victims of deception. The term Munchausen syndrome was applied by Dr Richard Asher to a group o...

OBJECTIVE The overriding objective is a critical examination of Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) and its closely-related alternative, factitious disorder by proxy (FDBP). Beyond issues of diagnostic validity, assessment methods and potential detection strategies are explored. METHODS A painstaking analysis was conducted of the MSBP and FDBP literature as it relates diagnostic and assessmen...

There has been great debate concerning the existence and meaning of compensation neurosis. It is included in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 and -10 but not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). On the eve of publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-...

Autoerythrocyte sensitization syndrome (AES) is a disorder characterized by recurrent, spontaneous, painful bruising in patients with underlying psychosis and neurosis. Its pathogenesis is uncertain. Purpuric lesions reproduced by injections of washed autologous erythrocytes suggest an autoimmune etiology. The authors described a 50-year-old woman who presented with recurrent episodes of painfu...