The Syndrome of Hospital Addiction (Munchausen Syndrome)

Abstract

Patients are occasionally encountered who spend much of their lives gaining admission to hospitals apparently suffering from acute surgical and medical conditions. They elaborate long and complicated histories which are full of falsifications, and may submit to operations which they do not require. Consequently an extensively scarred abdomen is characteristically seen in those who undergo repeated laparotomies, but seldom is anything found at operation to account for their symptoms, although adhesions from former operations are occasionally noticed. Usually they leave hospital against medical advice, or discharge themselves while investigations are still in progress or before their operation wounds have fully healed.