Factitious post-traumatic stress disorder, a variant of the psychological Munchausen syndrome, was first recognised in Vietnam war veterans but has not been described since. The case is described of a young man who claimed to have been involved in a fishingdisaster, feigning the symptoms to post-traumatic stress disorder to gain admission to hospital This appears to be a novel presentation of a Munchausen variant which has not been describedin connection with peace time disasters. It would appear that the psychopathology of factitious disorder, like that of other phenomena, such as delusions, is keeping pace with the views ofsocietyand current media concerns. This issue is discussed in the context of a review of recently reported variants of this interesting clinical syndrome.