Depression is a severe and common mental health condition, but in some cases people may fake or exaggerate its symptoms for different reasons, either to obtain rewards or to avoid undesirable outcomes.
The term used to refer to the fabrication of symptoms related to depression in order to avoid work or obtain something precious or needful is known as malingering. This act (malingering) is not easy to detect as many of the symptoms related to depression are easy to copy, especially when the person is completely aware of the situation.
Malingering [1] is not considered as a psychiatric condition. However, it does share some similarities with what is known as factitious disorder. [2] A factitious disorder is described as an act of faking symptoms of an illness without a clear motive or reward. It is also important to be able to differentiate malingering from somatic symptoms disorder, which is a condition that has people distressed about symptoms that may be imagined or exaggerated.
Symptoms of Malingering
There are no specific symptoms associated with malingering and it does not have a specific set of symptoms, which is why it can be difficult to detect. People may give inconsistent or overly intense descriptions of their symptoms to doctors. The onset of symptoms usually occurs suddenly in the face of an undesirable event such as criminal or civil legal problems, jury duty, or military duty.
Malingering depression will cause for there to be an abuse of the medical systems such as excessive testing and faking symptoms in order to obtain prescription medications.