Wires in the body: a case of factitious disorder.
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.
Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Koushik
K
Sinha-Deb
Siddharth
S
Sarkar
Mamta
M
Sood
Sudhir K
SK
Khandelwal
Factitious disorder; India; rural background; wires; young female