Malingering

Malingering is the intentional fabrication, feigning or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms to obtain an external benefit, such as personal gain, relief from duty or work, avoidance of arrest, acquisition of medication, or mitigation of a criminal sentence; although not itself a medical diagnosis, it may be recorded as a focus of clinical attention and is coded in both the ICD-10 and DSM-5, with motivations varying, for example some homeless individuals feigning mental illness to gain hospital admission, and failure to detect it can have significant consequences for insurance systems, healthcare institutions, public safety and veterans' disability programs. Malingering is distinct from other excessive illness behaviors: in somatic symptom disorder, symptoms arise from psychological causes but are experienced as real, while in factitious disorder symptoms are intentionally produced but not for external gain; the phrase feigned madness commonly describes the deliberate simulation of mental illness for evasion, deception or diverting suspicion, a strategy historically employed, sometimes formally as with court jesters, to grant individuals license to speak uncomfortable or socially prohibited truths.