Pretending to Be Sick for Avoiding Punishment, One of the Characteristics of Malingering

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Medical Video: How to Tell if Someone is Faking Mental Illness | Malingering / Factitious Disorder

Maybe you know people who pretend to be sick to be absent from their appointments or responsibilities. It could be that your friend or acquaintance is experiencing the 'malingering' syndrome which is called in the medical world malingering. Curious whether he really has malingering or not? Try checking here for the characteristics of malingering or malingering.

What is that malingering?

Malingering is a behavioral deviation that causes the perpetrator to admit he is sick even though he is actually in good health, or acts as if the illness is more severe than the real, with the aim of gaining personal gain. Experts do not include it as a mental illness, because those who pretend to be sick or experience malingering precisely motivated by the circumstances of the surrounding environment.

Why do people experience it? malingering or pretending to be sick?

Experts say that this syndrome is associated with antisocial personality disorders and a history of sufferers' personality. Unlike Munchausen syndrome, which occurs due to wanting to get more attention from other people, precisely malingering this occurs due to several things such as:

  • Try to avoid punishment in certain criminal cases
  • The desire to use illegal drugs or abuse drugs
  • Being in military activities, falsifying his health in order to get relief
  • Want to get a work allowance, so make false claims

What are the characteristics and signs of an actor malingering?

According to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5), malingering can be detected if it has the following characteristics and signs:

  • Being in a medicolegal condition. Medikolegal is a medical science related to law. In this case people with malingering will 'relapse' if you are in a certain legal case.
  • Tend to not be invited to cooperate, and violate various regulations. People who have malingering, not only falsifying his health status but often breaking the rules and not cooperating if asked to work together. This happens when he is examined by a doctor, he will be easily irritated and evasive.
  • Complaining from excessive symptoms. People with malingering will complain of symptoms that they feel excessively and say that they have a severe illness.
  • Have an antisocial personality disorder, namely behavioral disorders that do not respect applicable laws and social norms.

Are there special checks to detect malingering or malingering?

In fact, there is no specific physical examination to detect this syndrome unless a medical examination can show evidence that the patient is not sick. Meanwhile, experts will usually examine it with a mental examination conducted by giving various questions to people who are suspected malingering. People who experience malingering will show the following symptoms when doing a mental examination:

  • Easily irritated and dodged when asked about the health or illness that is being suffered.
  • Do not hesitate to threaten suicide.
  • When asked, they will avoid and tend to provide convoluted answers.

Of the various questions that are posted continuously, usually the culprit will give an inconsistent answer and this can then indicate that he is just pretending.

What should be done if a patient is suspected of only pretending to be sick?

1. Leave for a few moments

Long-term observation can help expose the pretense, because the offender usually has difficulty maintaining the condition of the malingering for a long time.

2. Perform a physical test

Perpetrator malingering also usually do not have enough knowledge about the symptoms of the disease that he "experienced", so that when carried out a physical test, he will have difficulty imitating the reaction that should have happened on his body.

3. Question and answer

Conduct a question and answer session or consultation, where the medical officer asks a number of questions repeatedly in a long time, will make the perpetrator overwhelmed because they have to "fabricate" the answer in lightning time. As a result, you will find contradictory or inconsistent answers.

4. Psychological evaluation

Psychological evaluation is also recommended to detect malingering. Psychologists have a scientific and objective clinical interview guide, to find out whether a patient gives an honest answer, or if he overestimates the actual condition.

Pretending to Be Sick for Avoiding Punishment, One of the Characteristics of Malingering
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