In our recent IF Survey, many people asked for more educational materials on MBI/FD. We have created the [EDUCATIONAL] flair and will be sharing approved topics on these subjects.

PLEASE NOTE: ALL EDUCATIONAL TOPICS MUST BE APPROVED BY MODERATORS BEFORE POSTING.

EXCERPT:

FAcTmouS DISORDERS involve the feigning or selfinduction of ailments, physical, emotional, or both, in the service of assuming the "sick role."' The form factitious disorders have taken, from simulated seizures to self-induced infections, are limited only by human creativity.2 In Munchausen by proxy, also called "factitious disorder by proxy," persons may demonstrate equal ingenuity in falsifying or creating illness in others, the goal being to assume the sick role vicariously.3 The manner in which false illness is communicated is apparently relatively unconstrained as well. With the exponential increase in the number of people with internet access, "virtual" support groups have multiplied. Many of them, conducted by e-mail or internet postings and sometimes requiring a free subscription, have been established for persons with particular diseases. Typically, the members of such networks strongly support one another, communicating not only information but strong emotion founded on their personal battles with illness. It is now emerging, however, that these groups simultaneously provide an inexpensive, convenient, and readily accessible forum for people who choose to misrepresent themselves as ill. As far as we know, the cases that follow are the first to be reported in which persons have exploited the internet as their "highway" to patienthood.

[Article contains case studies and discussion thereof]