ical condition may be present,  the deceptive behavior or induction of injury associated
with deception causes others to view such in dividuals (or another) as more ill or impaired,
and this can lead to excessive clinical intervention. Individuals with factitious disorder
might, for example, report feelings of depres sion and suicidality following the death of a
spouse despite the death not being true or the individual’s not ha ving a spouse; decep-
tively report episodes of neurological symptoms  (e.g., seizures, dizzine ss, or blacking out);
manipulate a laboratory test (e .g., by adding blood to urine) to falsely indicate an abnor-
mality; falsify medical records to indicate an  illness; ingest a substance (e.g., insulin or
warfarin) to induce an abnormal laboratory result or illness; or physically injure them-
selves or induce illness in themselves or anot her (e.g., by injecting fecal material to produce
an abscess or to induce sepsis).
Associated Features Supporting Diagnosis
Individuals with factitious disorder imposed on  self or factitious disorder imposed on an-
other are at risk for experiencing great psyc hological distress or functional impairment by
causing harm to themselves and others. Family , friends, and health care professionals are
also often adversely affected by their behavi or. Factitious disorders have similarities to
substance use disorders, eating disorders, im pulse-control disorders,  pedophilic disorder,
and some other established disorders related to  both the persistence of the behavior and
the intentional efforts to conceal the disord ered behavior through deception. Whereas
some aspects of factitious disorders might represent criminal behavior (e.g., factitious dis-