Open AccessWires in the Body: A Case of Factitious Disorder
Author(s) -
Koushik Sinha-Deb,
Siddharth Sarkar,
Mamta Sood,
Shubham Khandelwal
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
indian journal of psychological medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 0975-1564
pISSN - 0253-7176
DOI - 10.4103/0253-7176.116258
Subject(s) - factitious disorder , intervention (counseling) , girl , causation , medicine , psychiatry , psychology , developmental psychology , philosophy , epistemology
Factitious disorder can present with a wide variety of symptomatology. We present a case of a young girl presenting with spontaneous extrusion of wires from her limbs. These metallic wires were present in both her upper and lower limbs in the muscle bulk and were visible on X-ray. She sought repeated surgical removal of these wires, but the wires would invariably reappear. The patient could not be engaged in a therapeutic relationship and the family took premature discharge against medical advice, as they believed in supernatural causation for the phenomenon and were afraid that medical intervention might bring further ill fortune. The case highlights the importance of belief systems of family members as a barrier in managing such cases.