ABSTRACT
While rounding in the neurology ward, it has been told that he would unambiguously proclaim that more than 90% of the diagnosis of a patient is based on the history. Such is the importance of the history in neurology, including in the diagnosis of malingering. Thus, the diagnosis of malingering was relegated to nonreal diseases, along with pseudoneurologic syndromes and the functional illnesses which fall in the psychiatrists' realm, including Munchausen's syndrome and the somatoform disorders—malingering was considered an inconsequential diagnosis deemed not worthy of wasting a neurologist's time. A psychiatric assessment is just about as good as flipping a coin in the detection of malingering, with an accuracy rate of 57%. Another way to gain accuracy in assessing malingering is through a more thorough examination for the presence of lying on the history. In current medical environment, in academic institutions, a patient admitted to the hospital is likely to have a plethora of history and physical examinations.
