Malingering

Motivations for Malingering

It is important to emphasize that a malingerer is intentionally attempting to deceive others and is motivated by external gain, so as not to confuse malingering with other disorders involving deceptive presentation of illness symptoms. Malingering can be easily confused with Factitious Disorder, which is the intentional feigning of a disorder or illness with the intent of receiving medical treatment. Malingerers intentionally feign an illness or a disorder, but they do not do it to receive medical treatment. They do it as a means of gaining some benefit or reward, such as insurance money, or to appear unable to work or incapable of fulfilling other obligations. For example, there have been many accounts of people malingering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). U.S. veterans with PTSD are able to receive many financial benefits (for example, Social Security disability benefits and financial compensation from the Department of Veterans' Affairs) to aid them in their coping process. Thus, many people who do not have PTSD have attempted malingering of the symptoms as a means of receiving this monetary compensation.

Malingering is considered an offense in the U.S. military, punishable by dishonorable discharge and incarceration of up to 10 years. Malingering is also considered illegal when it is done in order to fraudulently gain compensation. For instance, in January 2012, a woman from Virginia was charged with medical fraud after she claimed to have cancer in order to raise money from sympathetic supporters. There have been many other cases in which people have feigned having cancer or some other terminal disorder for personal gain, such as getting extra sick days from work, gaining money from charities, getting a free trip to Disney World, and getting one's lavish dream wedding for free (by having it paid for by sympathetic friends and family members).

Malingerers have also been known to go beyond simply feigning symptoms. For instance, malingerers who are seeking to increase their temperatures to exaggerate their symptoms (that is, [Page 641]fever) may go so far as to heat their thermometer by using a lamp. Some may even alter their urine sample by adding sand to it, which increases the difficulty of gaining an accurate diagnosis.

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