A disorder in which a person presents repeatedly to hospitals with symptoms and signs (often simulated) suggestive of serious physical illness. Patients may simulate signs and symptoms in a bizarre way – for instance, by swallowing blood or inserting needles into the chest. Complaints of abdominal symptoms are particularly common. There is often a history of multiple hospital admissions and operations, and patients with this disorder often make persistent demands for ANALGESICS, show extensive pathological lying and lack of personal rapport. Although the cause is unclear, it is thought to be a form of hysterical behaviour in a severely disordered personality. Patients are often masochistic and attention-seeking. Occasionally there may be a degree of treatable DEPRESSION, but on the whole management is very difficult as patients often abscond from psychiatric treatment.

For the variation of the syndrome previously termed Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, see FABRICATED AND INDUCED ILLNESS.