Wow, in regards to the malingering people purposefully feigning the illness for whatever purpose outside of for a social effect - I ran a search and hit some pretty interesting powerpoint presentation by this site:
Dr. Martin L. Rohling -Dr. Rohling graduated with the following:
-BS in Mechanical Engineering in '81 (U of Illinois)
-BA in Psychology in '84 (S Illinois Univ)
-MA in Clinical Psychology in '88 (U of Alabama)
-PhD in Clinical Psychology in '91 (U of Alabama)
And here's what he says to say about malingering in his views:
Here is a link to googlecache of that powerpoint presentation, I suppose he's teaching a class about it now:
Malingering:* How can you be sure?
DSM-IV: Malingering criteria
* The essential feature of Malingering is the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms, motivated by external incentives such as avoiding military duty, avoiding work, obtaining financial compensation, evading criminal prosecution, or obtaining drugs. Under some circumstances, Malingering may represent adaptive behavior--for example, feigning illness while a captive of the enemy during wartime.
(Skipping to his views)
Strategies for Detecting Malingering of Neuropsychological Impairment
* 1. FLOOR EFFECT
* Malingerers fail at tasks on which even the most severely impaired persons would be likely to succeed.
# 2. PERFORMANCE CURVE
# Malingerers will not take into account the difficulty of items where one would assume that “normals” would perform better on easier items and poorer on more difficult items.
* 3. MAGNITUDE OF ERROR
* Malingerers are detectable because they make approximate answers (i.e., near misses).
* For example, Digit Span Backwards
* 4. ATYPICAL PRESENTATION
* Malingerers present in inconsistent or uncommon patterns that are incongruent with models of functioning.
* For example, Spinal Cord Levels of Functioning
* 5. PSYCHOLOGICAL SEQUELAE
* Malingering neurological deficits are sometimes detected by investigating the subjective psychiatric complaints.
* For example, MMPI or Diagnostic Interview
* 6. INATTENTION
* Malingerers fail to pay attention to instructions and questions presented by the examiner and frequently ask for them to be repeated.
* For example, Continuous Performance Test and Digit Span
* 7. HAPHAZARD, SYSTEMATIC, RANDOM, OR SEQUENTIAL RESPONDING
* Malingerers may try and guide their incorrect responses through one of these strategies as a way to avoid giving a valid response.
* For example, MMPI-2 or MCMI-II
* 8. SLOWED RESPONDING
* Malingerers may inhibit providing correct responses to questions, taking excessive time to generate incorrect responses. On speeded tasks, they may intentional perform at excessively slow rates.
* For example, Trails A & B
* 9. SYMPTOM VALIDITY
* Malingerers may perform below chance or less well then individuals with more severe levels of pathology.
* For example, Computer Assessment of Response Bias (CARB) and Word Memory Test (WMT)
-----
In this case, a suspect of malingering due to a neurological issue is well in the out of bounds area, sadly as it looks as if there is not much can be done.
If it is of psychological background, perhaps there may be a little hope for them, especially if they smart enough to see they are faking it.. but as it states.. Real malingerers truly seem unresponsive to "common sense" type things.