Dr Brenda Bursch is a professor of clinical psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and clinical pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her clinical expertise and research covers areas of social and medical psychology including illness falsification, palliative care, somatization and systems issues. She co-authored national guidelines for factitious disorder and pediatric chronic pain and served as an advisor for the DMS-5's section on somatic symptom disorders. She is a consultant to Los Angeles County Juvenile Mental Health Court.