Intentional Production Of Symptoms: A Narrative Review
- Author:
Nimmy Chandra
;
Igam Bagra
;
Ramandeep Pattanayak
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords:
Factitious, Malingering, Illness Deception, Intentional Symptom Production
- From:ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry
2017;18(1):85-94
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Illness deception or the intentional production of symptoms holds
special significance in the mental-health field. Mental health professionals need
to be aware about the various presentations of such cases, including how to
identify and manage them. Further, management is also complicated by several
ethical and legal issues. Methods: A narrative review covering the various aspects
of intentional production of symptoms is presented here, with articles searched
at pubmed-indexed literature, supplemented with cross reference search and
manual search of title/abstract of relevant articles, using suitable key words.
Results: Overall, relatively few publications were found from the more recent
years. The prevalence of intentional production of symptoms seems substantial,
yet is likely to be undetected in the majority of the cases. The boundary of the
current conceptualization of illness behavior/intentional production of symptoms
is blurred and warrants further exploration with well-designed studies and
robust debate. Clinical interview is the cornerstone of assessment. Further,
psychological tests are available for detecting illness deception, which may be
employed. Conclusion: Clinicians should consider a possibility of illness
deception whenever is in doubt and extreme care needs to be taken in
documenting such cases. Further research is needed in this area to clarify the
current controversies in the concept of this entity to help in better detection, and
objective assessment of such cases.
- Full text:P020170620401869197085.pdf
