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Feigned Psychosis—A Review of the Simulation of Mental Illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

G. G. Hay*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of South Manchester, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 8LR

Summary

The literature on the simulation of psychosis is reviewed and six patients who were thought to be feigning a schizophrenic psychosis were studied. On follow-up, all but one of the patients became overtly schizophrenic. It is argued that the simulation of schizophrenia is a prodromal phase of the psychosis occuring in extremely deviant premorbid personalities.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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