Failure to thrive in a ten-year-old girl.

A 10-year-old girl was followed over an 18-month period for vague gastrointestinal complaints, failure to thrive, and anemia. She was evaluated by several primary care physicians and consultants who failed to diagnose her problem or alleviate her symptoms. The treatment of an acute illness, a consequence of her presenting problem, resulted in the diagnosis of an unusual entity with important psychological and somatic features.