A Rare Case of Factitious Bleeding from Multiple Sites: Munchausen’s Syndrome

Abstract

Munchausen’s syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which patients inflict on themselves an illness or injury for the primary purpose of assuming the sick role. These patients can present with many different complaints and clinical symptoms including self-inflicted bleeding. This report describes a case of lately diagnosed Munchausen’s syndrome who presented with bleeding per nose, mouth, hemolacria, hemoptysis and hematochezia. Physicians should always consider this rare disorder in cases presented with bleeding symptoms of unknown origin. This interesting and rare case is presented to create awareness amongst all specially to medical population about Munchausen syndrome so that they can be diagnosed easily and treated with efficiency as well as misdiagnosis and unnecessary use of medical resources can be avoided. We recommend collateral history taking, exclusion of all possible etiologies and detailed briefing of family members as it plays a vital role to reduce the mental and financial suffering of the patient.