What you are saying about the patient also sounds very similar to cases of munchausen's syndrome. I think I spelled that right.
Hi Nielsent,
The family of psychiatric disorders involving the deliberate production, feigning or exaggeration of symptoms/signs (e.g., Factitious Disorder, Somatoform Disorder, Malingering) can be quite confusing to the lay person.
To put it simply, a Factitious Disorder involves the intentional production or feigning of physical or psychological signs or symptoms. The motivation for the behavior is to assume the sick role & external incentives for the behavior (such as economic gain, avoiding legal responsibility, or improving physical well-being) are absent. The elicitation of attention, compassion & the like is what drives these behaviors. Munchausen Syndrome is an older term that is now subsumed under the Factitious Disorder classification.
These patients have a very long history in the annals of medicine and I can assure you that they can be quite challenging, troublesome & trying, not mention expensive to the health care system, to diagnose & treat.
Regards,
DocVikingo
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Considering that treatment will generally ruin a vacation, I have a really hard time imagining anybody wanting to fake DCS.flots.
Hi flots am,
Yes, I suspect that you do. However, we're talking potentially very serious psychiatric disease here and patients in this general classification are known to ruin far more important situations than dive vacations, such as careers, marriages & their health. Self-inflicted wounds, self-induced disease & indirect self-harm from medical & surgical treatment occasioned by feigned symptoms are frequent in certain cases of Factitious Disorder.
Regards,
DocVikingo
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To deliberately create a DCS/AGE condition secondary to a Factitious Disorder can result in painful disabling injury, paralysis, or even suicidal death. Therefore IMO, you won't see many cases of these unfortunate individuals motivating themselves to use this mode of self-injurious, attention seeking behavior.
Hey Kev,
Obtaining meaningful estimates of the incidence & prevalence of Factitious Disorder is complicated by the dishonesty inherent in the condition, not to mention that these folks tend to seek treatment from many different doctors & facilities.
But, you are correct in that it does appear to be rare in the general population (almost certainly <0.5%). Within large general hospital populations, ~1% of patients are diagnosed as such upon psychiatric consultation.
However, I can show you case studies where patients diagnosed with Factitious Disorder intentionally poisoned themselves with toxic chemicals/medications; infected themselves with pathogens; punctured their ear drum, eye & even skull; interfered with/exacerbated medical conditions to prevent recovery; and ignored a bona fide medical issue until it become very grave.
Regards,
DocVikingo