Abstract
Abstract: In the forensic evaluation of body damage, it´s frequent for patients to simulate pain without a real organic cause. Malingering can be defined as the intentional production of physical or psychological symptoms, for an identifiable secondary gain, usually economic. The purpose of this paper is to study chronic lumbar pain malingering in workers, in order to provide guidelines in reference to its assessment. Thus, a systematic review of scientific articles was done, using the BINASS databases and consulting textbooks from the Legal Medicine Department Library. The results indicate that the evaluating doctor should suspect malingering, whenever there are discrepancies between the symptoms the patient is referring and the present objective findings. There are some tools available for the forensic doctor to detect malingering, which involve a complete and detailed clinical history and a straightforward and thorough physical exam, including tests and signs (Waddell´s signs for example) that can help identify inconsistencies. There is no specific test that can detect simulation on its own, but rather a combination of diagnostic tools that can allow to perform a more objective evaluation.