title: Sensorineural hearing loss associated with a factitious disorder.
abstract: Factitious disorders are characterized by intentionally abnormal physical and/or psychological behavior, and affected patients often make up their symptoms and clinical histories. The most serious and chronic type of factitious disorder is Munchausen syndrome. We report the case of a 24-year-old woman with a 2-year history of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) who later confessed to feigning her hearing loss. She was eventually diagnosed with a factitious disorder. During those 2 years, she was able to induce her SNHL by exposing herself to excessive noise or high doses of aspirin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing an association between a factitious disorder and SNHL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Graduate School, Tokyo.
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maruyama
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.forename: Taku
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Narushima
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kitamura
mesh_terms: D001300:Audiometry, Evoked Response; D005162:Factitious Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D055815:Young Adult