Pathologic Malingering

Abstract

The too vigilant maintenance of disability in an injured extremity for unadmitted gainful purpose results in an unmistakable clinical syndrome including real physical changes and a characteristic pattern of behavior. The patient thus afflicted can be called a pathologic malingerer, and is like the pathologic gambler in becoming so committed to achieving his goal that he loses all realistic sense of the comparison between the cost and the value of winning. This paper is intended to call attention to this syndrome, to define the entity, with its diagnostic criteria, specifically and to discuss methods of handling it. It is hoped . . .