TESTING CANDIDATES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4222, 11 December 1939, Page 8

TESTING CANDIDATES

DOCTOR AND THE MALINGERER “It is very difficult for the general practitioner to be certain of malingering or exaggeration. If a patient says he cannot sit up in bed because

of his stiff back, the doctor can’t very well proceed to sit him up, but often a number of tests suggest themselves which help to unmask the malingerer. It is a question of using one’s iwits. I had a patient who groaned every time he moved in bed. He complained of every movement. It did not seem as though one particular set of muscles was involved. I had reasons for Relieving him to be a thorough liar, so I wasted a few minutes giving him adv.ce on the treatment of a severe lumbago, and then left, telling him I would call again in a couple of days. I dropped my thermometer into a chair before leaving. In about 20 minutes I returned, opened the front door, went upstairs, and was about to go straight into the bedroom when I was met by the patient’s wife. I explained rather briefly that I had forgotten my thermometer and was in a great hurry. I brushed past her into an empty bedroom. The invalid had gone to a football match, but I took good care that he regretted his devotion to the game.”—Dr. G. X. Rainow, in his book, “G.P., the Experience of a Post-War Doctor.”