Research in treatment of patients with factitious disorders

Factitious diarrhea is most frequently found in patients with a factitious disorder who strongly complain of somatic symptoms. In general, both the diagnosis and treatment of such symptoms are very difficult. To date there have been few reports on the successful treatment of such disorders. We herein report five cases of patients with factitious diarrhea. We were able to indentify their problems as being in psychological crisis of some kind. We then tried to treat them by psychotherapy as well as by physical care and obtained favorable treatment results. Most of these patients were eventually able to return to their normal lives or jobs. The most important factor in this successful treatment was the view point of 'social role.'