Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy as a Cause of Child Abuse

Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) is a rare form of mental disorder and is known as a particular type of child abuse. MSBP has been described since 1977 as a severe form of abuse with illness falsification or the intentional harming by guardians, mostly mothers. The perpetrator of MSBP may inflict damage to the child directly or indirectly through medical procedures. The perpetrator’s alleged motive is to satisfy her psychological needs, and she has a history of mental illness, mostly, factitious disorder, personality disorder, and somatic disorder. The pathology is not well known; as such, it is difficult for medical personnel to detect it early. In addition, it is hard to be handled effectively by the police and child welfare agencies because of the scarcity of evidence. Therefore, the authors attempt to examine the essential information from early detection and child abuse prevention by analyzing its clinical characteristics and the perpetrator’s characteristics, including alerting signs of MSBP. For this purpose, we focus on the role of nursing staff to detect this unusual cause of child abuse.

MUNCHAUSEN BY PROXY SYNDROME

In this study, the main aim is to shed light onto the Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome news case articles from Turkey and the USA as well as to increase awareness related to the topic. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is a form of child abuse and as the perpetrator of the abuse mostly a parent of the victim, it is not easy to prove the abuse by the medical staff. Most of the time, the perpetrator is ‘mother’ of the child, who fabricates a story about the child’s sickness and seeks for medical attention for the child.

Particularities of Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy

This article contributes to a wider understanding of the Münchausen syndrome by proxy, which is a form of child abuse, very complex and destructive, difficult to diagnose and individualized. The abuser, most often the mother induce the symptom to the child, for which he addresses and requires the intervention of a specialist. Thus, the victim is subject to medical treatments, often invasive and very painful but unnecessary. The complexity of this type of abuse also consist in the difficulty of an early diagnosis as well as in the anticipated perception of the risk of Münchausen victimization. The paper aims to inform those who are directly or indirectly in contact with problems related to this syndrome.

The girl who cried wolf: A literature review and case report of pediatric factitious disorder

Pediatric presentations of factitious disorder (Munchausen syndrome) remain underdiagnosed and poorly understood compared to adult cases. The purpose of this study is to review the current literature on child and adolescent factitious disorder in order to better understand the differences between pediatric and adult presentations of this disorder. We also present the case of an adolescent girl with factitious disorder; her hospital course draws attention to the excessive healthcare expenditures and risk of iatrogenic complications associated with this diagnosis. We utilized MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases to conduct our review. Despite the limited number of high-quality studies analyzing pediatric presentations of factitious disorder, our review yielded several important findings. Studies suggest that the general acceptance of somatization as a common way for young people to manifest emotional stress may explain the under-diagnosis of this disorder in pediatric populations. Studies also highlighted differences in the clinical characteristics of factitious disorder when patients are stratified by age; most notably, younger patients are more willing to admit intentional falsifications when confronted and more likely to accept treatment, making them a potentially more effective target for intervention.