title: Artefactual illness to attract medical attention.
abstract: This paper describes 35 patients whose artefactual illness gained them admittance to hospital. The 15 wanderers were more likely than the 20 non-wanderers to have been in more than 10 hospitals, possessed histories exceeding 10 years, presented with abdominal or psychiatric complaints, volunteered poor work records and displayed psychopathic traits. The non-wanderers were more likely than the wanderers to possess socially conformist personalities. Twenty-six patients had severe sexual/marital problems. Neither group attended well for psychiatric follow up appointments.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009110:Munchausen Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009729:Nursing; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000150:complications; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications