Simulación en trabajadores que solicitan pensión por invalidez laboral

objective: describe the frequency and characteristics of mexican social security workers with malingering disorder that request disability pension. material and methods: comparative survey made among 136 workers seen during 2001, which were divided into three groups: malingering workers (mw), workers without disability (wod), and workers with disability (wwd). we administered the z test for scaled variables and test for nominal variables to identify group differences results: the incidence of malingering was of 2.2/100,000 workers. mean age was 41.9 ± 10.1 years, 440 was the average number of days of labor disability; 51 (37%) workers were malingerers. 35 (26%) workers were work disabled and 50 (37%) without disability. malingerers had higher level of schooling compared with wod and wwd (p < 0.02); most worked at the social security (p < 0.05), with lower number of previous jobs (p < 0.05), presented longer work disability (p < 0.05). depressive symptoms were not frequently noted (p < 0.025) and all had normal electroencephalogram and brain computed tomography studies. conclusions: malingering workers who request work disability pensions follow a particular pattern that differs from other workers that request disability assessment at the social security institute of mexico.