In Munchausen by proxy syndrome, a fortunately extremely rare, modified form (also called Munchausen by proxy syndrome or MSBP), mothers fake illnesses in their child, subjecting it to constant hospitalizations, painful examinations, and lengthy therapies. They acquire detailed expert knowledge about diseases and understand how to fake the corresponding symptoms in their child or trigger them with sometimes cruel methods.
A torment for the children
In Munchausen by proxy syndrome, mothers treat non-existent diseases on their own authority, with sometimes life-threatening drugs. They produce convulsions, fever, vomiting, skin rashes, cardiac arrhythmias or respiratory arrest – ordeals that more than 10 percent of the children do not survive.
The children’s fathers are often absent or tolerate the mothers’ sick behavior, mainly by pretending not to notice.
Signs of Munchausen by proxy syndrome.
Typically, such mothers exhibit highly involved, social behavior, publicly caring for the child or other patients in an affectionate and self-sacrificing manner and seeking a close relationship with nursing staff and physicians. They also readily agree to or even actively request painful or complicated examinations.
It is also noticeable that they refuse to leave their child alone and do not consent to any treatment for the child while they are away. They frequently change physicians, stating that the others did not search or treat sufficiently or thoroughly enough.
Causes and treatment
Why the sick women show such cruel maternal love remains unexplained. It is suspected that there is a connection with neglect or sexual abuse in their own childhood. Therapy for the sick mothers is almost impossible; in some of the cases, (temporary) separation of mother and child helps.
