Jimenez Hernandez J L, Figuerido-Poulain J L
Departamento de Pediatría, Hospital de Cruces, Vizcaya.
Actas Luso Esp Neurol Psiquiatr Cienc Afines. 1996 Jan-Feb;24(1):29-32.
The term Munchausen is used to design patients with "expectable clínical histories full of lies and inventions" in a presumable try to find medical attention. In the Munchausen by proxy syndrome the pediatric patients are victims of their parents psychiatric pathology, who, in spite of the normal aspect that many times have, are really sick and urgently needed of psychiatric treatment. In the spanish psychiatric bibliography we have found 25 cases of Munchausen syndrome that hurt to 20 families. 5 cases were Munchausen, and the remain 20 were Munchausen by Proxy. In this group the majority (13 cases: 65%) were non accidental drug intoxications and in the 20 cases the mother was the fraud author. We concluded remarking that statistics shows a casuistic lower than the real one. A study of the Munchausen by proxy syndrome shows that it is a type of child abuse; so that it is essential to stop the abuse as soon as possible, by a multidisciplinary work.
