FACTITIOUS DISORDERS – CHALLENGES IN PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS

Introduction: Factitious disorders is a group of psychiatric pathologies in which a person acts as if he has an illness by deliberately producing or exaggerating symptoms on them, or sometimes they use a “victim” in order to catch the attention of the others. Usually, the real causes for this kind of behavior are emotional impairments and personality disorders. Munchausen syndrome and Munchausen by proxy syndrome are the most known of these disorders. Aim: The aim of this paper is to raise awareness for this kind of disorder because they are an extensive problem for the medical system and in many cases, they are hard to diagnose and manage. Method: We started by observing and documenting an unusual case of Munchausen syndrome at a patient from Infantile Neuropsychiatric Clinic of Psychiatry Institute “Socola”, Iasi and her mother with Munchausen by proxy syndrome. We compered this pair of cases with data reviews on the subject to see what are the challenges that are common for this kind of pathologies and how we can manage them. Conclusions: We concluded that factitious disorders are more common that is thought they are. Doctors tend to let this diagnose on the last place because the priority is to resolve the somatic symptoms of the patient. That is why we must acknowledge and understand how to manage this kind of mental disorder.