An Accurate Picture of Factitious Disorder

Please pass on a hearty “well done” to Shari Roan for her revealing articles on factitious disorders, (“Playing for Sympathy” and “The Factitious Career: Faking the Faces of Illness,” April 21). Her accuracy and research do her credit.

These cases test the acumen and patience of any physician and will even set physicians at odds with each other over diagnosis and treatment.

The cases we have discovered in our hospital are known to all floors and are well known to the emergency room, where they often come at night to test the discernment of almost every new physicians on call.

OWEN E. HENINGER, M. D.

Assistant Clinical Professor

USC School of Medicine