We rely on patients' accounts of symptoms all the time: They determine which decisions will be made regarding diagnostics and treatment, and they influence the outcomes of our research data. However, patients are not always accurate in their symptom presentations due to a variety of reasons, including a lack of insight, poor effort, feeling misunderstood, a desire to be ill, secondary gains (e.g., maintenance of medication/monetary compensation), etc.
How will we know and what can we do to minimize the consequences of this issue?
If you want to know the answers to these - and related - questions, make sure to attend the 4th European Conference On Symptom Validity Assessment in Maastricht, The Netherlands (11 - 12 June 2015)
http://www.tmfi.nl/en/activities/sva/