JRSM > Volume 100, Number 2 > Pp. 81-84

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Send a Quick Comment Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Quick Comments are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bass, C. Articles by Halligan, P. W Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Essays

Illness related deception: social or psychiatric problem?

Christopher Bass¹   Peter W Halligan²

¹ Department of Psychological Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK E-mail: christopher.bass{at}obmh-tr.nhs.uk
² School of Psychology, Cardiff University, UK

SUMMARY

In this paper we question the validity of factitious disorder as a meaningful psychiatric diagnosis. When the diagnosis is used there is often the assumption that the person engaging in the ‘deception’ is not lying in the traditional sense of being deliberately misleading. Moreover, little is known about the aetiology or psychopathology underlying factitious disorder, and the legitimacy of deception as a mental disorder has been questioned. It is argued that while illness deception may be more common that hitherto assumed, factitious disorder as a distinct type of psychiatric disorder is conceptually flawed, diagnostically impractical and clinically unhelpful and should be dropped from existing nosologies.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. E. Krahn, J. M. Bostwick, and C. M. Stonnington Looking Toward DSM-V: Should Factitious Disorder Become a Subtype of Somatoform Disorder? Psychosomatics, July 1, 2008; 49(4): 277 - 282. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]