Munchausen Syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which the affected persona fakes or feigns illness in order to bring attention to themselves. Depending on the severity of the disorder, they may profess to have a long list of symptoms or conditions, or actually go so far as to create the symptoms in themselves by way of poisoning or wrongful use of medications.

While it can have similarities to hypochonria, is it in fact quite different. With hypochondriacs, they genuinely believe they have a condition, and some symptoms they show are purely psychosomatic. With a Munchausen's patient, they are aware that they are faking the condition or have full knowledge that they brought the condition upon themselves.

The reasons behind Munchausen's syndrome are both simple and complex. Often it starts with a loved one being ill, and seeing the attention said loved one receives. In other cases it can form with a severe illness in childhood during which the sufferer had plenty of attention from those around them. Poor self esteem, or a desire to be involved in the medical community can also play a part in the development of the condition.

Now, these conditions aren't enough to create the disorder on their own, or else we'd all have it. But in some people, they can lead to the mental link between illness and attention, and so can progress into Munchausen syndrome. They crave attention, recognition, and because of the link formed in their minds, illness seems like a perfect way to get it. The fact that in most cases of Munchausen's, the illness is feinged and so isn't real and isn't life-threatening, only adds to the problem. In their minds there is no risk, so there is no harm.

But the underlying reason for Munchausen syndrome is the desire for attention, no matter how harmful the methods in obtaining such may be.

Because of the attention-seeking behaviour exhibited, Munchausen's patients often will go to many different doctors and hospitals with a wide-range of ever-changing conditions. Their medical history does not contain any consistancies in that regard. They may complain of conditions worsening once treatment has begun to take place. They may complain of symptoms but have no physical signs of such (eg: complaints of vomiting or diarrhea without any accompanying dehydration). They are often willing to undergo any medical test, even painful or invasive ones, to keep up the facade and continue to get the attention their want.

Traveling from doctor to doctor serves a dual purpose in the case of Munchausen syndrome. Not only does it spread their name further and get them more attention from more people, but it also keeps doctors from catching on too quickly to the fact that a problem may be feigned. Medical records are not instantly transfered from hospital to hospital, and so a person with Munchausen syndrome can get treatment from one doctor for a condition that another doctor has already "taken care of", or perhaps a new condition that the patient tested negative for in the past.The new doctor is unaware of the patient's history and thus is more easily fooled.

Munchausen syndrom took its name, not surprisingly, from a German military man named Baron von Munchausen, who traveled around and told people tales of his marvelous adventures. However, these tales were exagerrated at best and fabricated at worst.

In the early 1950, a British physician named Richard Asher applied this term to patients who traveled from doctor to doctor, spreading the same sorts of tales about their medical problems. He saw the similarities to the tales of Baron von Munchausen, and thought it only appropriate to name the strange syndrome after him.

If a Munchausen's patient actually causes a condition in themselves through poisoning or wrongful use of medications of infectious agents, then the problem can be treated medically, as wityh any other patient. That isn't the big problem with the treatment relating to someone affected with Munchausen syndrome.

No, the problem arises, in a perverse way, when the patient is disovered to have Munchausen's. While help can be given to patients who will admit they have the condition, the problem arises when the person becomes legimately ill. If word spreads through the medical community that so-and-so has Munchausen syndrome, they are naturally going to be less likely to give attention to that person when they come in complaining of a problem. After all, their history dictates that the problem they're complaining of is likely to be faked, and giving them treatment would just add fuel to the fire of their delusions.

In this ironic way, when a patient with Munchausen's is legitimately ill, they may go without the treatment they need. It's a perfect example of "the boy who cried wolf." In the end, the wolf has come, and nobody is paying any attention.

This is another reason why Munchausen's is such a trick condition to deal with. In addition to feigned illness, doctors must use their best judgement to figure out when a real illness has come along. And unfortunately for some patients, doctors can and do make mistakes.

The fact that long-term negative effects can arise from self-inducing illnesses doesn't help matters either. Even necessary surgeries have their risks, for example, and unnecessary ones carry risks far greater than the norm. Injuries, wrong use of medication, invasive medical tests, these all carry risks that go beyond the moment.

The root of Munchausen syndrom is rarely ever treated. If the condition is present with other factors, such as a personality disorder or comorbid depression, treated that condition can sometimes help reduce the strange need for attention in the patient, but this seems to occur in a minority of Munchausen's patients.