Munchausen syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which those affected fake disease, illness, or psychological trauma in order to draw attention or sympathy to themselves. It is in a class of disorders known as factitious disorders which involve "illnesses" whose symptoms are either self-induced or falsified by the patient. It is also sometimes known as hospital addiction syndrome. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (most commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or disease. ... The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) is a coding of diseases and signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or diseases, as classified by the World Health Organization (WHO). ... // F00-F99 - Mental and behavioural disorders (F00-F09) Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders (F00) Dementia in Alzheimers disease (F01) Vascular dementia (F011) Multi-infarct dementia (F02) Dementia in other diseases classified elsewhere (F020) Dementia in Picks disease (F021) Dementia in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (F022) Dementia in Huntingtons... The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (most commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or disease. ... The following is a list of codes for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... The Disease Bold textDatabase is a free website that provides information about the relationships between medical conditions, symptoms, and medications. ... eMedicine is an online clinical medical knowledge base that was founded in 1996. ... Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. ... A factitious disorder or FD is a mental disorder where the ill individuals symptoms are either self-induced or falsified by the patient. ... Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is the formal name of a type of abuse in which a caregiver feigns or induces an illness in a person under their care, in order to attract attention, sympathy, or to fill other emotional needs. ... Malingering is a medical and psychological term that refers to an individual fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of mental or physical disorders for a variety of motives, including getting financial compensation (often tied to fraud), avoiding work, obtaining drugs, getting lighter criminal sentences, or simply to attract attention or sympathy. ... The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... A factitious disorder or FD is a mental disorder where the ill individuals symptoms are either self-induced or falsified by the patient. ...

Syndrome

In Munchausen syndrome, the affected person exaggerates or creates symptoms of illnesses in themselves in order to gain investigation, treatment, attention, sympathy, and comfort from medical personnel. In some extremes, people suffering from Munchausen's Syndrome are highly knowledgeable about the practice of medicine, and are able to produce symptoms that result in multiple unnecessary operations. For example, they may inject a vein with infected material, causing widespread infection of unknown origin, and as a result cause lengthy and costly medical analyses and prolonged hospital stay. The role of "patient" is a familiar and comforting one, and it fills a psychological need in people with Munchausen's. It is distinct from hypochondria in that patients with Munchausen syndrome are aware that they are exaggerating, while sufferers of hypochondria actually believe they have a disease. In many cases, this syndrome has been seen to be found in a parent or guardian of a child, who assures his or her child of 'having' a disease and therefore, spending the entire childhood of the child in the hospitals. A disease may be initiated in the child by the parent or guardian, and this is considered to be a form of serious child abuse. The parent or guardian needs serious psychiatric help and the child needs to be saved on all accounts. The term symptom (from the Greek meaning chance, mishap or casualty, itself derived from συμπιπτω meaning to fall upon or to happen to) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: Strictly, a symptom is a sensation or change in health function experienced by a patient. ... Illness (sometimes referred to as ill-health) can be defined as a state of poor health. ... For the anatomical term, see hypochondrium. ...

Origin of the name

The syndrome name derives from Baron Münchhausen (Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, 1720-1797) who purportedly told many fantastical and impossible adventures about himself, which Rudolf Raspe later published as The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Portrait of young Baron Münchhausen Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen (11 May 1720 – 22 February 1797) was a German baron who in his youth was sent to serve as page to Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and later joined the Russian military. ... // Events January 6 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings February 11 - Sweden and Prussia sign the (2nd Treaty of Stockholm) declaring peace. ... 1797 (MDCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Rudolf Erich Raspe (1737 - 1794) was a German librarian, writer and rogue. ...

In 1950, Sir Richard Asher (father of Jane Asher and Peter Asher) was the first to describe a pattern of self-harm, where individuals fabricated histories, signs, and symptoms of illness. Remembering Baron Munchausen, Asher named this condition Munchausen's Syndrome. Originally, this term was used for all factitious disorders. Now, however, there is considered to be a wide range of factitious disorders, and the diagnosis of "Munchausen syndrome" is reserved for the most severe form, where the simulation of disease is the central activity of the affected person's life. Sir Richard Alan John Asher, MD, FRCP (Brighton 3 April 1912 – Marylebone 25 April 1969) was the physician at the Central Middlesex Hospital, who gave the name Munchausen syndrome to the disease in a 1951 article in The Lancet. ... Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946) is an English film and television actress and the author of several full-length novels as well as a former girlfriend of Paul McCartney. ... Peter Asher (born on June 22, 1944 in Willesden, Middlesex, England) is a guitarist, singer and record producer. ...

Comparison to Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII)

Main article: Fabricated or Induced Illness

Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is the formal name of a type of abuse in which a caregiver feigns or induces an illness in a person under their care, in order to attract attention, sympathy, or to fill other emotional needs. It has been informally known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP), due to its similarity to Munchausen syndrome, in which a person feigns or induces illness in themselves for similar emotional reasons. The syndrome was proposed in 1977 by the pediatrician Roy Meadow, and gained recognition from the Royal College Of Pediatrics and Child Health in 2002. Nevertheless, not all medical organizations agree on the nature and extent of the syndrome; whether it actually exists and, if it does, the prevalence is a matter of dispute. Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is the formal name of a type of abuse in which a caregiver feigns or induces an illness in a person under their care, in order to attract attention, sympathy, or to fill other emotional needs. ... Abuser redirects here. ... Professor Sir Samuel Roy Meadow (born 1933) is a former British paediatrician. ...

In popular culture

• On April 19, 1983, the NBC television series St. Elsewhere aired the episode "Baron Von Munchausen" in which a patient is eventually diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome.^[1] This 1983 reference was probably the first time that Munchausen syndrome was referred to in an American network dramatic series. In the 1990s and later, almost every major medical drama on television has referred to either Munchausen syndrome or Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
• First airing October 11, 2005, an episode of FX's Nip/Tuck features a patient with Munchausen syndrome. She cuts herself to mimic the injuries left by the show's infamous face-slasher The Carver (and later actually becomes one of his victims).
• An episode of ABC-TV's Grey's Anatomy first airing October 16, 2005, features a patient diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome. She is portrayed taking Amitriptyline, an antidepressant that turned her urine blue.
• An episode (Deception, Season 2, Episode 9) of FOX's House, M.D. first aired on December 13, 2005, featured a patient played by Cynthia Nixon who admitted to Munchausen syndrome after being tricked into taking Rifampin, an antibiotic that turned her urine orange, but who was later additionally diagnosed with a real bacterial infection.
• An episode of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (S07E15), first aired on Tuesday February 7, 2006, featured a woman, played by Rebecca De Mornay, who had Munchausen syndrome.
• In an episode of the British series Doctors, a woman is diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome after repeatedly faking illness in the form of stomach pain. She cuts herself to put blood in her urine, and has surgical scars on her stomach from previous medical investigations. She then pretends to attempt suicide.
• An episode (My Fallen Idol, Season 5, Episode 21) of NBC's "Scrubs (TV series)", features a discussion of Munchausen syndrome by proxy where Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian explains that some parents deliberately harm their children to gain attention. This is followed by a daydream of J.D. doing a public service announcement reminding people: "Don't smother your kids".
• In the Seinfeld episode "The Scofflaw," a character played by Jon Lovitz fakes cancer for the attention (and subsequently receives gifts such as a toupee).
• In the book of Keeping Faith, written by Jodi Picoult, a woman thinks that Mariah White has this syndrome.
• Marshall Mathers, commonly known as Eminem contends that his mother, Debbie Mathers, has been diagnosed with disorder, as indicated in the song "Cleaning Out My Closet".
• The BBC Drama 'Little White Lies' 1998 is about a woman with MBP

is the 109th day of the year (110th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... St. ... Nip/Tuck is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama series created by Ryan Murphy for FX Networks. ... The Carver is a fictional character on the television show Nip/Tuck, the primary antagonist in the second and third seasons. ... This article is about the television series. ... Amitriptyline (or Amitryptyline) hydrochloride (sold as Elavil, Tryptanol, Endep, Elatrol, Tryptizol, Trepiline, Laroxyl) is a tricyclic antidepressant drug. ... House, also known as House, M.D., is an American medical drama television series created by David Shore and executive produced by Shore and film director Bryan Singer. ... Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning American actress who is best known for her portrayal of lawyer Miranda Hobbes in the popular HBO comedy-drama Sex and the City (1998–2004). ... Rifampicin (INN) or rifampin (USAN) is an antibiotic drug of the rifamycin group. ... Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Season 5 DVD Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (also known as Law & Order: SVU) is the first of three spin-offs of Law & Order (the other two being Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Trial by Jury; all series are presented on the NBC... Rebecca de Mornay (born August 29, 1959) is an American film and television actress. ... Scrubs is an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning American situation comedy/comedy-drama that premiered on October 2, 2001 on NBC. It was created by Bill Lawrence and is produced by Touchstone Television. ... Seinfeld is an Emmy Award-winning American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989 to May 14, 1998, running a total of 9 seasons. ... The Scofflaw is the ninety-nineth episode of the hit NBC sitcom Seinfeld. ... Jonathan Lovitz (born July 21, 1957 in Tarzana, California) is an American actor and comedian perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live and for his show The Critic. ... Keeping Faith (1999) is a novel by bestselling author Jodi Picoult about a custody battle involving a seven-year-old girl who may be seeing God. ... Jodi Picoult Jodi Picoult (IPA pronunciation: [1]) (born 1966) is an American author. ...

See also

• Fabricated or Induced Illness, also known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
• Psychosomatic illness
• Mythomania
• Histrionic personality disorder

Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is the formal name of a type of abuse in which a caregiver feigns or induces an illness in a person under their care, in order to attract attention, sympathy, or to fill other emotional needs. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) Hiteshi Thakker disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and inappropriate seductiveness, usually beginning in early adulthood. ...

References

• Feldman, Marc (2004). Playing sick?: untangling the web of Munchausen syndrome, Munchausen by proxy, malingering & factitious disorder. Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94934-3. 
• Fisher JA (2006). "Playing patient, playing doctor: Munchausen syndrome, clinical S/M, and ruptures of medical power". The Journal of medical humanities 27 (3): 135-49. doi:10.1007/s10912-006-9014-9. PMID 16817003.
• Fisher JA (2006). "Investigating the Barons: narrative and nomenclature in Munchausen syndrome". Perspect. Biol. Med. 49 (2): 250-62. doi:10.1353/pbm.2006.0024. PMID 16702708.
• Friedel,Robert O., MD Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified, Pg 9-10, Munchausen syndrome, Munchausen syndrome by Proxy. ISBN 1-56924-456-1

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...

External links

• Dr. Marc Feldman's Munchausen Syndrome, Malingering, Factitious Disorder, & Munchausen by Proxy Page - Page offering information on Munchausen and its many other names. Offers information on Dr. Feldman's books and his email address for interested parties.
• Article in Discover magazine, July 1993, by Abigail Zuger
• The Medea of the modern times