Malingering, A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Malingering, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Did you as a child ever pretend to be sick to avoid going to school?
There is actually a medical name for this behavior.
It is called malingering.
It indicates producing false medical symptoms or exaggerating existing symptoms in the hope of being rewarded in some way such as medical leave, exemption from duty or medicines.

Malingering is an act, not a psychological disorder.

It entails pretending to have a physical or psychological disorder in order to gain a reward or avoid something:
1. To avoid military service or jury duty.
2. To avoid being convicted of a crime.
3. To avoid going to school
4. To avoid specific work

Before suggesting that someone is malingering, it is important to exclude any possible physical or psychological disorders.

The doctor must always keep in mind that there are certain psychological disorders that might cause someone to unwittingly make up or exaggerate their symptoms.

More specific instances of malingering are:
1. Putting makeup on the face to produce a black eye
2. Adding contaminants to a urine sample to alter its chemistry
3. Placing a thermometer near a lamp or in hot water to raise its temperature

Malingering is the purposeful creation of falsely or grossly exaggerated physical and psychological symptoms with the purpose of receiving a reward.

This reward may be money, an insurance settlement, drugs, release from incarceration, or the avoidance of punishment, work, jury duty, the military, or some other form of service.

A malingerer may try to raise the temperature of a thermometer through heat from a lamplight, or alter a urine sample by placing sand to it.

Some cases of malingering are easy to determine.

If the malingerer is more discrete, a doctor may have considerable difficulty getting evidence for an accurate diagnosis.

Malingering is not a psychiatric disorder.

It is similar to but distinct from factitious disorder in which an individual fakes symptoms without a concrete motive of reward.

Malingering is also different from somatic symptom disorder in which a person feels real psychological distress from imagined or exaggerated symptoms.

Malingering can cause abuse of the medical system, with unneeded tests being done and time taken away from other patients.

Causes:

Malingering is not produced by any physical factors.

Rather, it is the effect of someone’s desire to gain a reward or avoid something.

That said, malingering is often followed by real mood and personality disorders, such as antisocial personality disorder or major depressive disorder.

Malingering is fabrication or profound overstatement of illness (physical or mental) to gain external benefits such as:
1. Avoiding work or responsibility,
2. Seeking drugs,
3. Avoiding trial (law),
4. Seeking attention,
5. Avoiding military services,
6. Leave from school,
7. Paid leave from a job, among others

It is not a psychiatric illness according to DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Diseases, Fifth edition).

Malingering is linked with an anti-social personality disorder and histrionic personality trait.

To get an external (secondary) gain, the person fakes an illness that can be of physical or psychological nature.

The patient consciously tells lies about his or her disorder to get a benefit, and upon obtaining the benefit, they cease complaining.

There is no medicine or intervention that can cure malingerers.

Upon detailed history, the malingerer may use up their excuses and give up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Aug 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463959992

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

Malingering,

A

Simple

Guide

To

The Condition,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2019 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at amazon.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Malingering, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Malingering)

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiography account of my journey as a medical student to family doctor on my other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiography account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

Malingering

What Is Malingering?

Did you as a child ever pretend to be sick to avoid going to school?

There is actually a medical name for this behavior.

It is called malingering.

It indicates producing false medical symptoms or exaggerating existing symptoms in the hope of being rewarded in some way such as medical leave, exemption from duty or medicines.

Malingering is an act, not a psychological disorder.

It entails pretending to have a physical or psychological disorder in order to gain a reward or avoid something:

1. To avoid military service or jury duty.

2. To avoid being convicted of a crime.

3. To avoid going to school

4. To avoid specific work

Before suggesting that someone is malingering, it is important to exclude any possible physical or psychological disorders.

The doctor must always keep in mind that there are certain psychological disorders that might cause someone to unwittingly make up or exaggerate their symptoms.

More specific instances of malingering are:

1. Putting makeup on the face to produce a black eye

2. Adding contaminants to a urine sample to alter its chemistry

3. Placing a thermometer near a lamp or in hot water to raise its temperature

Malingering is the purposeful creation of falsely or grossly exaggerated physical and psychological symptoms with the purpose of receiving a reward.

This reward may be money, an insurance settlement, drugs, release from incarceration, or the avoidance of punishment, work, jury duty, the military, or some other form of service.

A malingerer may try to raise the temperature of a thermometer through heat from a lamplight, or alter a urine sample by placing sand to it.

Some cases of malingering are easy to determine.

If the malingerer is more discrete, a doctor may have considerable difficulty getting evidence for an accurate diagnosis.

Malingering is not a psychiatric disorder.

It is similar to but distinct from factitious disorder in which an individual fakes symptoms without a concrete motive of reward.

Malingering is also different from