Progressive vision loss as part of Munchausen’s syndrom on the example of the clinical case

Abstract

The article presents a case of Munchausen’s syndrome featuring complaints of progressive vision loss not previously reported in Russian literature. Within the research scope, we performed psychopathological enquiry, analysed the medical examination records of the involved specialists, as well as review of modern literature. Existing obstacles in the diagnostics of the syndrome in question were investigated including particularities of ophthalmological practice and it is concluded that alertness of doctors of all specialties in respect of feigned symptoms cases should be increased to properly manage such patients and prevent prescription of unnecessary potentially harmful medical interventions.

Keywords

Munchausen’s syndrome / factitious disorder / functional visual loss / nonorganic visual loss / interdisciplinary diagnostics

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