The Thin Line between Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

Factitious disorders (FD) are the intentional production of feigning symptoms or disabilities; physical or psychological, aroused in a person who aims to assume the patient role. Münchausen syndrome (MS) and other FD differ from somatoform disorders (such as conversion disorder, somatization disorder and somatoform disorder undifferentiated) because in somatoform disorders there is no evidence of deceiving clinicians. For the same reason FD differ from Somatic Symptom Disorder that’s a reconceptualization of somatoform disorders in DSM5.

The most extreme and serious form of FD, referred to as the MS, is characterized by a history of various outpatient visits and hospitalizations whose symptoms aggravated or changed following negative test results, or once the treatment had begun, patients would be overwhelmed by eager to get medical tests, operations, and other procedures. Münchausen syndrome by proxy (MBP) is a complex and potentially fatal form of child abuse in which a parent or guardian - usually the mother - repeatedly induces physical or psychological symptoms in a child in order to simulate an illness in the latter. The next paragraph presents the case of a young girl, victim of MBP who became a Münchausen patient. Read more..........................