Malingering is further differentiated from conversion disorder and other somatic symptoms by the intentional production of symptoms. There's more to see -- the rest of this topic is available only to subscribers. a customer at a restaurant sees that she was. Malingering is not a medical term and is not listed as a diagnosis in DSM-5. . Author R Feder. types: factitious disorder imposed on self and factitious disorder imposed on the other (panel 1). The difference between malingering and factitious disorder is the goal of the patient; malingerers abuse the system to obtain secondary gain while patients with factitious disorder attempt only to obtain emotional, or primary gain.