Factitious disorder-experience at a neuropsychiatric center in southern India.
OBJECTIVE
Factitious disorder is amongst the more intriguing but less-studied psychological disorders. Studies from different parts of the world have reported of varying prevalence rates. Here, we try to study the prevalence of factitious disorder in a specific sample of patients attending a neuropsychiatric center in India.


METHODS
We did a retrospective review of our institute's database for cases with a diagnosis of factitious disorder in the 10-year duration from 2001 to 2010. We reviewed the available clinical and socio-demographic data.


RESULTS
Of the 81,176 patients seen in the 10-year duration, only 8 patients had been assigned the diagnosis of factitious disorder, leading to a prevalence rate of 0.985 per 10,000 patients in this sample. Most of the patients were lost to follow-up; hence.


CONCLUSIONS
Factitious disorder remains highly underdiagnosed in developing countries like India. Mental health professionals need to be more aware and inquisitive about this particular disorder, so that they do not miss the diagnosis.
Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Ajit Bhalchandra
AB
Dahale
Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Shivananda
S
Hatti
Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Harish
H
Thippeswamy
Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Santosh Kumar
SK
Chaturvedi
Factitious disorder; India; psychological symptoms