• General
• More about factictious disorders

Factitious disorders (also 'by proxy') comprise the smallest category of the DSM-IV classification. In everyday practice the disorders are rare, though the ‘ by proxy' variant makes the news whenever a mother threatens serious harm to her child.
In choosing links we have been guided by several considerations. It is not the quantity but the quality that counts. The links are organised into five categories: pages with links, PubMed literature searches, articles from professional journals, Internet publications, and organisations and professional publications.
Pages with links
Collections of links make searching the net more effective. We strive to suggest links that are frequently updated. The relevance of the link contents has been evaluated only on a global level.
PubMed literature searches
We have formulated a PubMed search strategy for each diagnostic category. By clicking on the link you can search the recent literature regarding the subject. An ideal search strategy should yield all relevant but no irrelevant articles. In practice that is impossible. We have strived for a balance between 'sensitivity' and 'specificity'. We chose a configuration by which the search is limited to the last three months. You can change the search interval by clicking on the limits button.
Articles from professional journals
A limited number of 'peer reviewed' journals offer full text articles free of charge. For somatoform disorders, the British Medical Journal is an interesting resource. Topic relevance is the most important criterion for inclusion.
Internet publications
Various organisations provide texts that are relevant to this topic. These texts can be compared to chapters in a textbook. There are a number of internet publications for readers interested in this topic. Content of the articles has been checked for relevance and the reliability of the source.
Organisations and professional journals
Many of the professional organisations and journals are an accessible and a via the Internet. Our objective is to provide their Internet addresses.
Contact
We welcome suggestions for interesting links. Send your comments to somatisatie@psychiatrienet.nl.

Factictious disorders are characterised by physical or psychological complaints or symptoms that are deliberately produced or feigned, with the intent of assuming the social role of an invalid.

It is distinguished from malingering on the basis of motive: in malingering, the complaints or symptoms are also deliberately produced or feigned, but the objective is personal gain. As a rule the objective in malingering patients is obvious and patients can "stop" the symptoms whenever they are no longer useful.

Factictious disorder is also known in the literature as Munchhausen's syndrome.

A variant of factictious disorder is factictious disorder 'by proxy' or Munchhausen's syndrome by proxy. In this disorder, the manufacture or feigning of complaints and symptoms involves another person entrusted to the patient's care. The patient's objective is the same.

Factictious disorder (by proxy) is related to somataform disorders, which also involve patients with a physical presentation which cannot be attributed to a physical illness. In contrast to somatoform disorder, in factictious disorder the symptoms are organised and acted out.

The DSM-IV has chosen to present factictious disorder (by proxy) as a separate chapter.