Factitious psychosis: phenomenology, family history, and long-term outcome of nine patients.

Factitious psychological symptoms are defined in DSM-III as symptoms that are under the patient's voluntary control. Using specific criteria for the presence of voluntary control, the authors identified a cohort of 9 patients with factitious psychotic symptoms from among 219 patients consecutively admitted to a research ward for psychotic disorders. The phenomenology and family history of the patients suggested that they were a homogeneous group. All had similar DSM-III personality disorders, and most had a remarkably poor long-term outcome.