CNN (8/15, Nedelman) reports on its website that medical researchers are discussing how to differentiate between Munchausen syndrome by proxy – a disorder in which parents falsify, agitate, or induce an illness in children to secure “their role as the desperate, knowledgeable parent,” one researcher said – and medical child abuse.
CNN follows the story of one woman who faked her own cancer scare and then “infected her daughter with harmful bacteria” and allegedly “removed blood from her daughter so that she would become anemic.” One researcher termed the behaviors “disorders of deception,” while others say it is an intentional form of abuse rather than a psychological condition.
The American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual includes a diagnosis of a “factitious disorder imposed on another,” although the medical community has not reached a consensus on how to characterize it.
Related Links:
— “A ‘disorder of deception’: When a mom makes her child sick,” Michael Nedelman, CNN, August 15, 2017.