Factitious disorder presents one of the most challenging variants of psychopathology in medicine. The Spectrum of Factitious Disorders is the first book for professionals to offer a comprehensive overview of current thinking about patients who feign or induce illnessAin themselves or othersAto accrue the intangible benefits of the AsickA role. Attempts to influence factitious patientsA behavior have been largely unsuccessful. This volume covers innovative techniques for treating such patients, stressing the need to treat them with acceptance and understanding. First-person accounts are used to illustrate the intense feelings mobilized in friends, family members, caregivers, and patients themselves as factitious disorders play out. The book also presents a management approach that emphasizes respect for the patient, no matter what the symptomatology. Using abundant case material, this revolutionary work aids mental health practitioners in understanding the phenomenon of Adisease-forgeryA and addresses its inherent management challenges. Notable contributors provide relevant information on ethical and legal issues in factitious disorders. The clinical features, detection, and management of factitious disorder by proxy are explored, along with comprehensive psychosocial assessment and legal issues in such cases.

Marc D. Feldman, M.D., is Associate Professor, Vice Chair for Clinical Services, and Director of the Division of Adult Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB). He is also Medical Director of the UAB Center for Psychiatric Medicine. Dr. Feldman has lectured widely to both professional and lay audiences and is the co-author of the book Patient or Pretender: Inside the Strange World of Factitious Disorders. Stuart J. Eisendrath, M.D., is Director of the Consultation-Liaison Program at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, and a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.