Malingering is fabricating or
exaggerating the symptoms of
mental or
physical disorders for a variety of "
secondary gain" motives, which may include financial compensation (often tied to
fraud); avoiding school, work or military service; obtaining drugs; getting lighter
criminal sentences; or simply to attract attention or sympathy. Malingering is different from
somatization disorder and
factitious disorder. Failure to detect actual cases of malingering imposes a substantial economic burden on the health care system, and false attribution of malingering imposes a substantial burden of suffering on a significant proportion of the patient population.