Definition
Definition
Pathomimy is the imitation by a subject of symptoms relating to a disease.
Generalities
Pathomimia is a morbid (ill) need to simulate, to imitate an illness by imposing invented symptoms on oneself. This syndrome was studied by Paul Bourget and Dieulafoy in 1908.
In other words, a person suffering from pathomimia inflicts and maintains self-created injuries. These injuries can be of all kinds:
- skin abrasions (intense friction)
- burns
- bleeding
- abscess caused by injections of caustic, septic products
- ingestions sometimes powerful medications (anticoagulant, hormone)
These patients therefore fabricate a pathology and undergo multiple medical examinations, even going so far as to undergo surgical interventions to confirm the existence of an illness.
Le Munchausen syndrome, after the baron of the same name (18th-century German officer, famous for his fabrications), is a form of pathomimy.
Pathomimia is a morbid condition similar to mythomania, characterized by the need to simulate a pathology sometimes even without real benefit. It falls within the framework of delusional hypochondriac diseases.
It sometimes requires emergency hospitalization for drug poisoning, burns, ingestion of caustic products.
Patients most often require psychotherapeutic or even psychiatric monitoring.