Munchausen syndrome


noun Psychiatry.

a factitious disorder in which otherwise healthy individuals seek to hospitalize themselves with feigned or self-induced pathology in order to receive surgical or other medical treatment.

Origin of Munchausen syndrome

1950–55; named after Baron von Münchhausen, whose fictionalized accounts of his own experiences suggest symptoms of the disorder

Medical definitions for munchausen syndrome

Munchausen syndrome

n.

A psychological disorder characterized by the repeated fabrication of disease symptoms for the purpose of gaining medical attention.