You suspect a patient may hold a false memory of a past event. Before revealing the answer, decide how you would assess this.

Where possible, cross-check the account against independent sources — other people present, records, or documented timelines — rather than relying on the patient's confidence in the memory as evidence of its accuracy, since a false memory is held with the same subjective conviction as a genuine one. Ask about factors known to increase risk, including suggestibility, older age, and the presence of organic brain disease, and be cautious about the way questions are phrased during the assessment itself, since suggestive questioning can itself contribute to the formation of false memories. In any context with legal implications, be aware that false memories can, in their most extreme form, underlie false confessions, driven by a fundamental distrust of one's own memory rather than deliberate dishonesty.