Page 109 - The Indian Optician Digital Edition January-February 2022

MALINGERING:

A REAL CHALLENGE FOR

EVERY EYE PRACTITIONER

DR VINEET SHRIVASTAVA
B.E.M.S., D.O., (FOOREC)
FCLC (Gold Medalist)
Consultant Optometrist &
Educator Banswara, Rajasthan

EYE EXAM

alingering is the fabrication, feigning or exaggeration
of physical or psychological symptoms in order to get a
Mbenefit. Very often, a patient will fraudulently attribute
such symptoms to a cause for some personal gain or benefit
even though he knows that they are due to some other cause.
The patient is usually a man and it is typical to find that there
is a history of an injury received at work for which the patient
considers he should receive compensation. His manner is rude,
blustering, argumentative and antagonistic. The commonest
ocular symptom is that of blindness or of gross defect of vision.
It is therefore, necessary for an eye care practitioner to consider
the various tests that may be employed to prove that the
patient has good vision.
DETECTION OF MALINGERING

Malingering is an act, not a condition. Before deciding that
a person is malingering, other physical causes that could be

105 | MALINGERING