M Disorder and DSM..

M syndrome

&

DSM

Munchausen's syndrome entered the DSM classification for the first time in 1980.Therefore, it is likely that this condition is underdiagnosed. It is thought that people with FD feign illness or injury not to achieve a clear benefit, such as financial gain, but rather to gain the sympathy and special attention often given to people who are truly ill. People with FD are even willing to undergo painful or risky tests and operations in order to obtain special attention from others. Munchausen's syndrome is considered a mental illness because it is associated with severe emotional difficulties. Cases of Munchausen's syndrome often result in expensive and unnecessary medical workup.

poor me..

The DSM-IV-TR requires that the following three criteria be met for the diagnosis of FD:

1. Intentional production or feigning of physical or psychological signs or symptoms
2. Motivation for the behavior is to assume the sick role
3. Absence of external incentives for the behavior (e.g., economic gain, avoiding legal responsibility, and improving physical wellbeing, such as in the case of malingering).

Other factors that indicate an illness is factitious are listed in Table 2. Differential diagnoses and essential differentials are listed in Tables 3 and ​and44.

Table 2

Factors that raise the possibility that the illness is factitious

Table 3

Differential diagnoses of FDs

Table 4

Essential differential of factitious disorder, malingering, and conversion

The DSM-IV recognizes the following types of FD:

• FD with predominantly psychological signs and symptoms
• FD with predominantly physical signs and symptoms
• FD with combined psychological and physical signs and symptoms.
• FD not otherwise specified, which includes those disorders with factitious symptoms that do not meet the criteria for FD. The DSM-IV places FD by proxy (i.e., Munchausen's syndrome by proxy) into this category, defining it as “the intentional production or feigning of physical or psychological signs or symptoms in another person who is under the individual's care for the purpose of indirectly assuming the sick role.
  
  
  
  retrieved from : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990557/
  
  
  -Shahida-