Münchausen Syndrome: Mom’s Illness Is Killing Me

It has become the challenge of any health care practitioner, and it appears with increasing frequency in doctors’ offices. It is known as “Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy” and consists of a personality disorder in which the mother simulates an illness in the child.

Münchausen syndrome is a form of child maltreatment in which one of the parents induces real or apparent symptoms of some disease in the child. If not detected in time, the consequences can be fatal.

Specialists tend to distinguish this from hypochondria, which is a concern about being sick caused by anxiety or the symptom of endogenous depression.

Münchausen’s syndrome was discovered in 1951 by Dr. Richard Asher and is considered a “fictitious disorder” in the international psychiatric classification. The name comes from a German military mercenary, the Baron of Münchhausen, famous for telling fictional stories about his conquests and adventures.

Münchausen syndrome: the causes

Münchausen syndrome is a rare, poorly understood disorder and its causes are not known for certain. It occurs due to psychological problems in the adult, and it is a behavior with which it tries to attract attention. The point is, she abuses her son by drawing unnecessary medical attention to him.

Adding blood to the child’s urine or feces, stopping feeding him, feigning a fever, covertly giving him drugs that produce vomiting or diarrhea, infecting the intravenous lines to make him look or become sick are some of the tricks parents use to generate symptoms in their children.

As a result, the little ones spend most of their childhood in the hospital. Many of them end up being hospitalized when they have a range of symptoms that are not part of any known disease.

While the mother is cooperative, protective and loving in the hospital, the baby undergoes medical examinations, surgery and other annoying and invasive procedures that are absolutely unnecessary.

Münchausen: how to get medical assistance

This psychopathology is characterized by an uncontrollable and permanent obsession or desire to be assisted by medical personnel. This creates a compulsion in mothers to wander from one hospital to another, many times under a false name, in order to be cared for without leaving a trace.

Although these moms are aware of the deception, they are not aware of their subconscious motives to get the attention of others. They are able to manipulate their children and convince medical staff and family of their children’s illness.

Many take the mistreatment of their children to the extreme, poisoning them or causing their death by suffocation. All this responds to a single objective: to obtain hospitalization, with the care and attention that this entails, in order to feel protected and taken into consideration.

On symptoms, checks and tests

• The child’s symptoms cannot be classified in a classic picture of the disease, because they do not agree with each other.
• They tend to get better in the hospital but come back home.
• The adult is usually overly attentive and overly available.
• Mothers refuse to withdraw from their children or have them treated by someone else.
• Other children in adult care also suffered from unexplained chronic illnesses.
• Blood samples used for laboratory analysis do not agree with the patient’s blood type.

• Presence of drugs or chemicals in blood, fecal matter and urine samples.

Münchausen: the figures

Although specialists point out that the figures do not reflect the frequency with which Münchausen Syndrome occurs and estimate higher percentages, the incidence and rise of this syndrome are truly worrying.

In 2016, at least 700 cases were reported in Spanish-speaking countries alone, and only the most serious cases were recorded. According to studies, 5% of children with asthma and allergies to certain foods are the victim of an adult.

About 700 cases of poisoning and suffocation per year are attributed to this syndrome in the United States. This disorder is estimated to be responsible for at least 10% of infant deaths in North America.

Meanwhile, according to German criminological statistics, 40% of cases of child maltreatment depend on women, of which between 85 and 90% suffer from Münchhausen Syndrome by proxy.

The children of those with this disease tend to collaborate with their mothers out of their natural desire to be loved, and rarely reveal their martyrdom. Many times these children who struggle to cover their mothers die from this pathological alteration of maternal love.