Journal of Physical Chemistry & Biophysics
Open Access

Malingering

Malingering is the fabrication, feigning, or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms designed to achieve a desired outcome, such as relief from duty or work. Malingering is not a medical diagnosis, but may be recorded as a "focus of clinical attention" or a "reason for contact with health services". Malingering is categorized as distinct from other forms of excessive illness behavior such as somatization disorder and factitious disorder, although not all mental health professionals agree with this formulation. Failure to detect actual cases of malingering imposes an economic burden on health care systems, workers' compensation programs, and disability programs, such as Social Security Disability Insurance and veterans' disability benefits. False accusations of malingering often harm genuine patients or claimants.

Lady Flora Hastings was accused of adultery following court gossip about her abdominal pain. She refused to be physically examined by a man for reasons of modesty, so the physician assumed she was pregnant. She later died of liver cancer. In 1943, US Army General George S. Patton found a soldier in a field hospital with no wounds; the soldier claimed to be suffering from battle fatigue. Believing the patient was malingering, Patton flew into a rage and physically assaulted him. The patient was suffering from malarial parasites.Agnes Torres was the first subject of an in-depth discussion of transgender identity in sociology, published by Harold Garfinkel in 1967. In the 1950s, Torres feigned symptoms and lied about almost every aspect of her medical history. Garfinkel concluded that, fearing she would be denied access to sexual reassignment surgery, she had avoided every aspect of her case which would have indicated gender dysphoria and hidden the fact that she had taken hormone therapy; physicians observing her feminine appearance therefore concluded she had testicular feminization syndrome, legitimizing her request for the surgery