ABSTRACT
Factitious Disorder with physical signs and symptoms may be defined as a mental disorder leading the patient to feign multiple physical signs and symptoms for the purpose of assuming the sick role. A chronic and severe variant of this disorder is commonly known as Munchausen's syndrome. Although the disorder is under the voluntary control ofthe patient, he or she is usually unconscious of the reason for the behavior and does not have a secondary gain. Rather, the behavior is driven by the primary gain, which consists solely of assuming the sick role for a variety of unconscious reasons.
