Summary

• Uncommon disorders in which the patient deceives healthcare providers.
• Patients are motivated by a desire to assume the sick role rather than by the hope to achieve external rewards.
• Munchausen syndrome is an extreme form.
• Factitious disorder by proxy describes the clinical scenario wherein the patient feigns signs or symptoms of illness in another person who is under the patient's care, when there are no clear external incentives. It is a serious form of abuse.
• Systematic evidence for directing treatment is lacking.