Clinical Characteristics of the Munchausen Syndrome

Abstract

The term Munchausen syndrome was introduced by Asher in 1951 for the description of patients who tell fantastic stories and deliberately seek repeated hospitalizations at different hospitals for simulated or self-induced acute illnesses. The syndrome has been repeatedly criticized and several other eponyms have been suggested. In DSM-III-R the designation chronic factitious disorder is used synonymously with Munchausen syndrome. On the basis of 3 new case reports and a statistic processing of literature case histories, this paper suggests that when using the original criteria by Asher, the syndrome constitutes a subtype of chronic factitious disorders, specially characterized by factitious illness, peregrination, pseudologia fantastica and dramatic admission circumstances. Further, most of the criticism of the syndrome may be a result of the great variability in definitions and diagnostic criteria used by different authors. Other clinical characteristics of the patients as well as psychopathologic and psychodynamic considerations are briefly discussed.

Identification and Classification of Factitious Disorders: An Analysis of Cases Reported during a Ten Year Period

“…Lack of uniformity in reporting impedes researchers from creating a comprehensive conceptualization of the disorder, as the reader is left to infer behavior and diagnoses based only on the information that is provided. However, a failure to mention a patient characteristic does not mean it is nonexistent [15]. As was the case in the current review, missing data on variables such as presence of a borderline personality disorder prevented a complete understanding of the patient.…”

Self‐Embedding Behavior in Adults: A Report of Two Cases and a Systematic Review

“…Several reports used Munchausen's syndrome as a synonym for factitious disorder. In fact, Munchausen syndrome is an extreme type of factitious disorder characterized by two specific symptoms: (i) pathologic lying concerning symptoms or history (pseudologia fantastica), and (ii) seeking repeated hospitalization at different hospitals (peregrination) . These features are, for instance, conspicuously present in Ms.…”

Instrumental psychosis: the Good Soldier Svejk syndrome

“…The initial version of the scale was tested in 15 patients with putative diagnoses of schizophrenia (6), schizoaffective psychosis (7) and bipolar affective psychosis (2). The intraclass correlation coef®cients demonstrated good reliability overall but unsatisfactory agreement and rater bias on some items (Table 1).…”