Munchausen syndrome, also known as Factitious Disorder Imposed on self is a psychological disorder in which the individual fakes an illness whether physical or mental when in fact they have none. This is a challenging condition to diagnose and manage since the focus of the person is not to recover and stay away from the role of a patient.
What is Munchausen Syndrome?
Munchausen syndrome patients are known to do all they can to mimic symptoms or even injure themselves so as to develop signs of illness. It isn’t exceptional to find them undertaking unwarranted operations, prescribing needless drugs or even changing tests to create diseases.
Munchausen Syndrome is quite rare and some of the behaviors more commonly associated with the disease include:
- Falsifying Symptoms: Patients may exaggerate reporting of symptoms, manipulate results of the tests for instance by putting chemicals to our urine samples and sometimes cause harm to themselves just in order to make a symptom.
- Seeking Treatment: They may present symptoms which demand the services of various specialists, and will attend different hospitals to avoid being treated by any intelligent health facility that may discover their intention. Visit a Psychiatrist in Islamabad to get help with this condition.
- Knowledgeable About Medicine: Most Munchausen syndrome patients are knowledgeable of medical terms to pretend to manifest serious diseases towards health care givers.
- Refusal of Psychiatric Help: Sometimes, such people deny that their condition is as a result of self-harming and avoid psychiatric examination or therapy.
Causes of Munchausen Syndrome
The exact cause of Munchausen syndrome is not well understood, but several factors may contribute to its development:
- Childhood Trauma: Maybe staying away from home, having a history of abuse, neglect or critical sickness during childhood can make one develop the behavior in a bid to seek care.
- Personality Disorders: Patients with munchausen syndrome commonly present with underlying personality disorders especially the border-line and the antisocial personality disorder.
- Need for Attention: A child that needs attention, sympathy, or very likely anyone that would feel like he/she has to be special in their way is likely to exhibit the behaviors associated with this condition.
Diagnosis of Munchausen Syndrome
As it has been pointed out, diagnosing Munchausen syndrome is not easy because patients seeking treatment will do everything possible to convey false impressions. A diagnosis typically involves:
- Detailed Medical History: Combing through records of previous hospitalizations to determine whether a client had repeated hospitalizations, multiple complaints, and divergent self-reported/symptomatic presenting problems. sightwiki
- Psychiatric Evaluation: Unfortunately, many patients do not want to cooperate, and that is why the indispensable part of diagnosis is psychiatric assessment.
- Collaboration Among Healthcare Providers: One may require to consult with the other in order to put together the conduct that the patient is exhibiting.
Treatment of Munchausen Syndrome
Management of Munchausen syndrome presents a challenge of treatment since the patient may be in denial of the disorder and may not consent to treatment. However, a multi-faceted approach can be effective:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT can enable an individual to gain insights and modify his/her perceptions that lead to particular behaviors. Psychotherapy may also involve exploration of appropriate strategies for handling stress or other trauma .
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): If the person also has a personality disorder then this type of therapy will be good to use. It aims at imparting knowledge in self control and social competence.
- Building Trust: An important step is building a relationship of trust between the patient and the therapist. The therapist should rarely challenge the patient because this will result in resistance which is counterproductive.
- Family Therapy: Using family members in treatment can be useful in taking care of some of the root causes and assisting the patient.
- Support Groups: There are numerous patient support organizations where patients can find others like them.
Challenges in Treatment
One of the biggest problems in Munchausen syndrome’s treatment is the patient’s unwillingness to undergo therapy. Some patients may not think that they are engaging in problematic behavior, and even if they do, they may not be willing to lose what they gain from being ill. Most of the time long-term therapies and long-term follow-ups are required for the benefits to be visible and significant.
Conclusion
Munchausen syndrome is a complicated illness, and its treatment is rather difficult, but such approaches as psychotherapy, medical intervention, and patient magazinpapers support can help a person start the process of healing for the pathology that lies behind such behavior. The patient had a proven history of self-harm and lying, so establishing trust and paying attention to the patient’s emotional state became one of the priorities aimed at the patient’s reconditioning. To seek medical treatment please consult a Psychiatrist in Lahore today.
