Nonorganic overlay refers to a situation in which a person may indeed have an organic disorder, such as laryngitis or asthma, but the symptoms and limitations of the physical condition are in a sense magnified behaviorally so that the disorder seems much more severe than it really is physically. In this scenario, there may be findings sufficient to explain mild hoarseness, but the patient is severely hoarse because of nonorganic overlay. Or, the patient may have mild asthma, but his or her case seems severe because of nonorganic overlay that amplifies the appearance of troubled breathing.
