factitious disorder

American  

noun

Psychiatry.

1. any of various syndromes, as Münchausen syndrome, characterized by physical or psychological symptoms intentionally produced by a person and under voluntary control.

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Example Sentences

Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders also refers to as “factitious disorder,” is defined by its perpetrator inducing or coercing another person to fake physical and psychological symptoms expressly to obtain attention and sympathy.

From Salon

Court records show Kristy Schneider was charged Monday with endangering the welfare of a minor for “creating a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury” to the boy due to factitious disorder, previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

From Seattle Times

Factitious disorder is when someone falsely claims another person is ill in order to deceive other people, according to the Mayo Clinic.

From Seattle Times

Instead, she explained that Munchausen syndrome by proxy – classified under “factitious disorder imposed on another” in the latest American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – doesn’t always, or even usually, involve poison.

From The Guardian

Today, Munchausen is considered the most severe type of factitious disorder, a group of mental illnesses in which a person feigns a physical, emotional or cognitive condition.

From Washington Post