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[Infantile Munchausen syndrome. Etiology, diagnostic criteria, and treatment]
B Morales-Franco1, M L de la Morena-Fernández
1Departamento de Psicología Educativa y de la Educación, Facultad de Psicología y CCEE, Universidad de Málaga, España.
Insights
Munchausen Syndrome by proxy is child abuse where parents fabricate illness in their children. Understanding this syndrome aids early detection and prevention of harm to children.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Pediatric Medicine
- Forensic Psychiatry
Background:
- Munchausen Syndrome by proxy (MSbP) is a severe form of child abuse.
- It involves caregivers fabricating or inducing illness in a child under their care.
Observation:
- Parents may invent symptoms or manipulate a child's body to simulate disease.
- The goal is to subject the child to unnecessary medical investigations and treatments.
Findings:
- This paper explores factors contributing to MSbP development.
- Diagnostic guidelines and differential diagnosis from genuine pathologies are crucial.
- Preventive and therapeutic strategies for affected children and parents are analyzed.
Implications:
- Early detection by healthcare professionals can prevent prolonged suffering for children.
- Understanding MSbP is vital for safeguarding child welfare and preventing ongoing abuse.
Abstract:
In this paper, we study a special kind of child abuse, the Münchhausen Syndrome by proxy, which consists of a group of diseases that some parents invent in their own children. These parents describe false symptoms of disease in their children, or manipulate the bodies of their children in order to cause alterations. Their purpose is that the doctor will carry out diagnostic tests and medical treatments with the children who really aren't ill. Our objective is to understand this syndrome, so we can report the factors that influence its appearance, study the diagnostic guidelines and the importance of doing a correct differential diagnostic with other real pathologies, and we analyze the preventive and therapeutic measures that health professionals must carry out in children and in their parents. When these professionals understand this syndrome they will be able to detect it before children are subjected to more unnecessary suffering. And, they will be able to prevent that these aggressions on children continue.