Which of the following best describes thought withdrawal delusions?

A. False belief that someone is following. This describes a persecutory delusion, a type of false, fixed belief where a person is convinced they are being watched, followed, or harmed despite no evidence. Delusions are thought disturbances, whereas illusions involve misinterpretations of sensory stimuli.

B. Misinterpretation of real experience. An illusion occurs when a person misperceives an actual external stimulus. For example, seeing a coat hanging in a dark room and mistaking it for a person. Unlike hallucinations, illusions are based on real sensory input that is distorted or misinterpreted.

C. Feeling things that are not there. This describes a tactile hallucination, where a person experiences false sensory perceptions of touch, such as bugs crawling on the skin. Tactile hallucinations are commonly seen in substance withdrawal (e.g., alcohol withdrawal, cocaine intoxication) and psychotic disorders.

D. Hearing voices that are not there. This describes an auditory hallucination, the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Unlike illusions, hallucinations occur without any external stimulus and are perceived as real by the affected individual.

A. Worry about health despite no symptoms. This describes illness anxiety disorder (formerly hypochondriasis), where individuals have an excessive fear of having a serious illness despite minimal or no physical symptoms. Unlike factitious disorder, these individuals are not fabricating symptoms but are genuinely convinced they are sick.

B. Normal voluntary and sensory dysfunction. This does not describe any recognized psychiatric disorder. However, conversion disorder (functional neurological symptom disorder) involves involuntary neurological symptoms (e.g., paralysis, blindness) without a medical cause, whereas factitious disorder involves intentional symptom fabrication.

C. Worry is out of proportion to the symptoms. This is characteristic of somatic symptom disorder (SSD), where individuals have excessive concern and distress over real but often minor physical symptoms. Unlike factitious disorder, their symptoms are not deliberately produced or exaggerated for attention.

D. Deliberate exaggeration and fabricated symptoms. Factitious disorder (formerly Munchausen syndrome) involves intentionally faking, exaggerating, or inducing medical symptoms to assume the "sick role". Unlike malingering (which is done for external rewards like financial gain), factitious disorder is driven by an internal psychological need for medical attention.