Factitious disorder imposed on another
Factitious disorder imposed on another, previously Munchausen syndrome by proxy, is the involuntary use of another individual to play the patient role. For example, false symptoms are produced in children by the caregivers or parents, to produce the appearance of illness, or they may give misleading medical histories about their children. The parent may falsify the childs medical history or tamper with laboratory tests to make the child appear sick. Occasionally, in Munchausen by proxy, the caregiver actually injures the child or makes them sick to ensure that the child is treated. For instance, a father whose son has celiac disease might knowingly introduce gluten into the diet. Such parents may be validated by the attention that they receive from having a sick child. Ganser syndrome
Ganser syndrome was once considered a separate factitious disorder, but is now considered a dissociative disorder. It is a disorder of extreme stress or an organic condition. The patient experiences approximation or giving absurd answers to simple questions. The syndrome is sometimes diagnosed as merely malingering—however, it is more often defined as a factitious disorder. This has been seen in prisoners following solitary confinement, and the symptoms are consistent in different prisons, though the patients do not know one another.Symptoms include a clouding of consciousness, somatic conversion symptoms, confusion, stress, loss of personal identity, echolalia, and echopraxia. Individuals also give approximate answers to simple questions such as, "How many legs on a cat?" "Three"; "Whats the day after Wednesday?" "Friday"; and so on.
The study shows that adults who hoard report a greater lifetime incidence of having possessions taken by force, forced sexual activity as either an adult or a child, including forced sexual intercourse, and being physically handled roughly during childhood, thus proving traumatic events are positively correlated with the severity of hoarding. For each five years of life the participant would rate from 1 to 4, 4 being the most severe, the severity of their hoarding symptoms. Of the participants, 548 reported a chronic course, 159 an increasing course and 39 people, a decreasing course of illness. The incidents of increased hoarding behavior were usually correlated to five categories of stressful life events.Although excessive acquiring is not a diagnostic criterion of hoarding, at least two-thirds of individuals with hoarding disorder excessively acquire possessions. Having a more anxiously attached interpersonal style is associated with more compulsive buying and greater acquisition of free items and these relationships are mediated by stronger distress intolerance and greater anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism has been shown to increase both the sentimental value and perceived utility of items. These findings indicate that individuals may over-value their possessions to compensate for thwarted interpersonal needs. Feeling alone and/or disconnected from others may impair peoples ability to tolerate distress and increase peoples tendencies to see human-like qualities in objects. The humanness of items may increase their perceived value and individuals may acquire these valued objects to alleviate distress.