Thanks. I have to tell you, in all my years on FR I have NEVER seen anything like this. At least I have NEVER "personally" witnessed anything like this. We've had our nut cases in the past, and we've had some doozies too. But this one took the cake for me. I'm still waiting to see if anything else plays itself out. But to be honest.. I'm not in good health, thats not a secret. I just want this to all go away. I was duped and I'm too sick to "play with the sick puppies". We've never made it a secret. Perhaps someone read our profile. (Perhaps they are sicker than we even know.)
I wish they had never involved me. But they did by bringing it on this forum, and into my life.
So now it pains me more than most here will ever know. How naive I am.. was.
Anyway.. perhaps we can all just laugh these people off. Because I really need to.
from http://www.munchausen.com/-- A Case of Factitious Bereavement
Factitious disorder, Bereavement, Munchausen's syndrome.
INTRODUCTION
The occurence of physical factitious disorders has been recognised in medical literature for over a century (1). These include the extreme variant known as Munchausen's syndrome, a term coined by Asher (2) to describe wandering patients with dramatic medical presentations and pseudologia fantastica. More recently attention has been drawn to factitious disorders with psychological symptoms (3) including psychiatric Munchausen's syndrome (4) and factitious bereavement (5). We report an unusual case which highlights the clinical problems associated with these disorders.
CASE REPORT
MH, a 28 year old male, presented to the psychiatric unit in a distressed and intoxicated state. He described a seven week history of increasing dysphoria associated with marked suicidal ideation which he related to two recent bereavements. Firstly the tragic death of his wife in a road traffic accident seven weeks previously, followed three weeks later by the death of his mother due to a "heart attack". He also indicated that his wife had been seven months pregnant at the time of the accident and went on to describe in graphic detail the traumatic experience of having to identify her body. Mental state examination revealed a depressed mood and a preoccupation with feelings of anger related to the loss of his wife. He described feelings of hopelessness and reported that he had on one occasion "walked in front of a bus" and on another had been restrained from "jumping into the river". He reported an alcohol intake in excess of forty units per day since the death of his wife but denied previous excessive alcohol consumption.
Past history revealed that M was the youngest of fourteen children. Three of these had died as the result of "a motorbike accident", "leukemia" and "cancer of the throat" respectively. He described a happy childhood without emotional difficulties in a stable and supportive family. A student of moderate academic ability, he was a good mixer and left school at fifteen having obtained the group certificate. He then worked as a mechanic in his home town but became increasingly estranged from his family because he was "a bit wild and hot headed". He emigrated to the United Kingdom where he worked as an electrician. Soon after this he met his wife and they married after a brief courtship. He reported having little contact with his family in Ireland apart from a brief period when he returned home after the sudden death of his father five years previously.
He denied any past psychiatric or medical history and stated that he had been in excellent psychological health until "suddenly everything was taken away". He was admitted with a diagnosis of a severe adjustment reaction secondary to the recent bereavements.
The initial hospital course was relatively uneventful. M's case was viewed sympathetically by staff members who were supportive and concerned. He refused permission for his family to be contacted stating that they wouldn't be interested. His suicidal ideas gradually abated over a four week period and he was discharged with a plan for active follow up including bereavement counselling. He re-presented two weeks later in a distressed and intoxicated state. He reported depressed mood associated with anergia, early morning wakening, anorexia and weight loss. He was commenced on antidepressant medication and made a rapid recovery and was discharged after a three week admission.
M re-presented one week later with a similar clinical picture and was re-admitted. Two days later the hospital was contacted by M's landlord who had "heard that M had been killed in a car accident". When questioned about this M offhandedly explained that his landlord had just got mixed up. He again refused permission for his family to be contacted. Liaison with his bereavement counsellor revealed that he had resisted anything other than the most superficial discussion of events and had especially objected to producing any photographs of his wife. Soonafter M, who had hitherto been an affable and co-operative patient became threatening and hostile with the staff and left hospital against medical advice. At this point the validity of M's story was questioned and, because of concern about the patient's threatening mental state, attempts were made to contact his family through the police in his stated home town.
His family were successfully contacted and indicated that M was in fact single and that his mother and eleven siblings were all alive and well. The three siblings previously reported as deceased were in fact non-existent. Further questioning revealed that he had no known previous psychiatric contact and had resided in his home town until four months previously when he had left after an argument at work over a forged cheque. He had no other forensic history.
M re-presented five days later reporting the same history as previously but with a number of minor omissions including the story of his three deceased siblings. He also changed the date of his marriage. He was confronted with these inconsistencies and with the details of the collateral history from his family. He adamantly maintained that his story was true but refused admission. One year later he has not re-presented.
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Now, if someone could only give me a name for the disorder that makes people come here and pretend to be related to persons in the news...