Chickpea, Mr. Zdzisław and brain tumor, the story that never happened
Keywords:
mitomania,, Munchausen syndrome, health careAbstract
The case report describes a patient with the diagnosis of harmful alcohol use and, initially, the symptoms of Munchausen syn-drome and later of mitomania. In the 47-year-old patient 3 years before the final psychiatric diagnosis, brain cancer had been supposed-ly diagnosed. The patient described his travel to Czech Republic and neurosurgery operation with gamma knife. Upon return the patient refused to follow doctors’ recommendations. His self-treatment method consisted in making a skin wound in his shin and placing a chickpea inside. With time he started to interlace the facts from his life with the fabricated ones. Some of them, as criminal offences, military service in French Foreign Legion, seemed to be fantastic. Precise examination, the analysis of facts and their verification let us show falseness of the whole story, starting with brain tumor. Besides chronological description of symptoms, the paper describes family, situational and cultural correlations, including wide access to medical knowledge. The theoretical part contributes to classifications of mitomania, its connections with other disturbances and guidelines for differential diagnosis.
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