The Spectrum of Factitious Disorders

"The Spectrum of Factitious Disorders" offers professionals a comprehensive overview of current thinking about patients who feign or induce illness - in themselves or others - to accrue the intangible benefits of the "sick" role. This volume covers innovative techniques and a management approach for treating such patients, stressing the need to treat them with acceptance and understanding. First-person accounts are used to illustrate the intense feelings mobilised in friends, family members, caregivers and patients themselves as factitious disorders play out. Using abundant case material, this work aids mental health practitioners in understanding the phenomenon of "disease-forgery" and addresses its inherent management challenges. Notable contributors provide relevant information on ethical and legal issues in factitious disorders. The clinical features, detection and management of factitious disorder by proxy are explored, along with comprehensive psychosocial assessment and legal issues in such cases.