Differential Diagnosis in the DSM Framework: Illness Anxiety Disorder, Factitious Disorder, and Malingering

Description

This course is a live, interactive webinar held on January 29, 2027, from 12pm-1pm Eastern Standard Time.

This reduced price webinar does not offer CE Credits. The same live event is available for purchase and offers 1 CE hour for behavioral health clinicians.  See "related products" below.

Registration closes at midnight (EST) the day before the event

Differentiating illness anxiety disorder, factitious disorder, and malingering requires more than noticing unexplained symptoms or questioning whether a report is accurate. Clinicians need a careful, evidence-based process for examining intentionality, motivation, context, and the full clinical picture.

This focused training offers an opportunity to strengthen that process and revisit essential DSM-5-TR distinctions that may not have been addressed in depth since graduate training. A clearer framework can support more defensible diagnostic reasoning, case formulation, and treatment planning.

Jason Buckles, Ph.D., LPCC, is a practicing mental health counselor with more than 25 years of experience and over two decades of experience teaching DSM-based assessment at the graduate level. He has also served as a statewide clinical director, a behavioral health consultant to the New Mexico Department of Health, and an instructor for continuing education programs. His combined teaching and clinical experience allows him to connect diagnostic concepts with the complexities professionals encounter in practice.

Dr. Buckles uses a straightforward, lecture-based approach grounded in current literature and practice-based examples. He breaks down this complex differential diagnosis into clear considerations that clinicians can apply when evaluating somatic complaints, suspected symptom production, and presentations that may change over time.

The course begins by examining the challenges involved in distinguishing illness anxiety disorder, factitious disorder, and malingering. Participants will review the symptom profiles of each and explore how intentionality, motivation, external incentives, context, and available evidence inform differential diagnosis. The training also considers mixed or evolving presentations and related conditions such as somatic symptom disorder, psychotic processes, and obsessive-compulsive patterns. Example assessment questions, brief cases, and a basic diagnostic algorithm help organize the clinical reasoning process. The course also emphasizes that unexplained symptoms do not establish factitious behavior, external incentives do not prove malingering, and genuine illness may coexist with any of these processes.

Key Takeaways:

• Clarify the essential distinctions: Recognize illness anxiety disorder as pathological health anxiety and illness preoccupation, understand intentional falsification or induction in factitious disorder, and identify malingering as intentional fabrication or gross exaggeration for external incentives rather than a mental disorder.
• Strengthen differential diagnosis: Distinguish illness anxiety disorder from somatic symptom disorder and intentional symptom production by considering motivation, intentionality, context, symptom patterns, and alternative explanations.
• Respond more ethically and defensibly: Use objective evidence, longitudinal records, collateral information, and neutral clinical reasoning when deception is suspected rather than relying on intuition, stigma, or a single unexplained finding.

Why This Course?

• A focused review of a difficult clinical distinction: Build a more organized way to evaluate somatic complaint–related presentations when the boundaries among health anxiety, factitious behavior, and malingering are unclear.
• Instruction grounded in extensive experience: Learn from an instructor who has taught DSM assessment and related clinical topics to graduate students, professionals, and community audiences for more than two decades.
• Practical continuing education from TCI: Telehealth Certification Institute provides clinician-centered education designed to help behavioral health professionals strengthen their knowledge, ethical practice, and quality of care.

Learning Objectives

• Describe DSM-5-TR IAD and Factitious Disorder.
• Explain malingering as a non-disorder condition that may be a focus of clinical attention.
• Differentiate the three using intentionality, motivation, context, and evidence.
• Distinguish IAD from Somatic Symptom Disorder and intentional symptom production.
• Apply an ethical, evidence-based approach to suspected deception.

Regardless of theoretical orientation, mental health professionals need a disciplined and replicable approach to diagnostic consideration and differentiation. This one-hour live webinar provides an accessible way to return to the fundamentals, examine a particularly challenging differential, and add practical tools to your clinical toolbox.

Format and Access

This course is a live, interactive webinar.

Course Details

Schedule: (listed in Eastern Daylight Time)

• 12:00 pm - 12:50 pm Lecture
• 12:50 pm - 1:00 pm Q&A

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a live, interactive webinar. Enrollment includes access to live event(s) but does not include recordings of the presentations.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructor

About Jason Buckles, Ph.D., LPCC

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Jason earned his Bachelor’s in Psychology at New York University in 1996. While there, he worked on diagnostic projects at Bellevue Hospital and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He earned his Master’s in Counseling at The University of New Mexico in 2001 and his Ph.D. in Special Education at The University of New Mexico in 2016. His dissertation focused on the experiences of direct support professionals who support people with sexually challenging behavior. Since 2002 Jason has been the owner of Talkabout Inc., a Behavior Consultation agency specializing in support for people with intellectual disability and concurrent mental health diagnoses. From 2012 through 2016, Jason was the Statewide Clinical Director of the New Mexico Department of Health – Bureau of Behavioral Support, overseeing statewide systems of behavioral support consultation. From 2016-2019 Jason was the Executive Director of A Better Way of Living, a CQL-accredited agency that provides life-wide supports for people with intellectual disability. He is currently a contracting consultant with the New Mexico Department of Health, where he supervises the sexual risk screening program, and the ongoing development of behavior support systems, and provides statewide trainings on co-occurring mental health conditions for people with intellectual disability, among other topics. For several years Jason has also served as the Program Manager for the Developmental Disability/Mental Illness project with the University of New Mexico. For most of the past 20 years, he was a part-time instructor at both The University of New Mexico, teaching Introduction to Intellectual Disability, and at New Mexico Highlands University, teaching DSM Assessment for Counselors.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

This reduced price webinar does not offer CE credits, just great content.

The same live event is available for purchase and offers 1 CE hour for behavioral health clinicians.  See "related products" below.

Participants may request a printed version of their certificate of attendance to be delivered by mail. A shipping/handling fee of $6.95 will be charged per request. Shipping internationally may require an additional charge.

Agreement

By registering for this event you are agreeing to the following:

• 24 hour notice is required if you are not able to make it to a live event. Recordings are not provided to webinar registrants.
• To update and test using Zoom.us/test before the event to ensure you are ready for the event.
• Since this is a live interactive event it means that your interaction during the event is expected.  Your name and image will be visible to other participants during the live event. You will NOT be included in any recording made.
• An evaluation must be completed within one week of the event. Continuing Education credit(s) cannot be issued unless you attend the event and the evaluation is submitted.  (Evaluation is not mandatory for APA hours)
• Partial CE credits are not possible; therefore you are required to be present throughout the event in order to receive CE credits.
• Respect all other participants during the event as though you would if you were sitting with the other attendees at a conference table:
  • Dress appropriately
  • Be in a private location void of distractions
  • Do not multitask
  • Do not drive during an event
  • Remain on mute unless you are sharing with the group

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement