Skip to main content

Next Level Child Care- Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

This blog post shall study a psychology disorder known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and analyze the difficulty with identifying the perpetrator suffering from it. Caretakers play a significant role in nourishing, protecting and fostering a child. Nevertheless, if a child gets ill, it is natural for parents to become anxious and overprotective. Parents try everything from providing home remedies to approaching doctors to cure their child. However, it gets severe when caretakers fabricate or aggravate illness in the child for personal motives like seeking attention, sympathy or social interaction. (Meadow, R.1989) Limits exceed when medical practitioners are convinced to conduct surgery or added painful medical examination. These symptoms depict the psychological disorder known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
In 1977, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy obtained recognized. 200 cases exhibiting caretakers intentionally harming their own child were reported. (Meadow, R.) Medical practitioners had to scrutinize the caretaker and keep them under surveillance as the children who were admitted in hospitals were prone to harm. (Wilson, R) Doctors claim that abusers are almost always a female or a mother. However, this may be the case as mothers are the primary caretaker but the abusers can be male to although it seldom happens. (Wilson, R. 2001).
In Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, it’s the motive/selfish intentions of the parents or caretakers leading to intensive child abuse. The caretaker seeks to hamper the child's education by demonstrating the child disabled or severely ill. Having a sick child provides the perpetrator with attention from social communities, monetary supports and spend long hours at medical settings like hospitals. This disorder generates a sense of control they achieve from caring for a sick child.
 However, the symptoms of MSBP vary greatly; there are symptoms that are more easily faked or induced in a child, like suffocating a child while claiming he/she suffers from asthma, starving to cause seizure, smothering to prove to bleed, adding substances to the child’s food to cause nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Abusers are often able to conceal their role in the child’s illness. Instead of broken bones and bruises, evidence of the abuse in the majority of child abuse cases involves high fever of unknown origin, tampering with intravenous links to poisoning. (Wilson, R. 2001).
  As discussed above, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is generally seen in women especially those suffering from depression, anxiety or some other personality disorder. They tend to have a history of either losing a parent or being abused or neglected as a child. (Meadow, R. 1989).  Hence, they have trouble forming a healthy relationship with their children. They tend to have difficulty managing anger and frustration.
The patients of MSBP are hard to identify. Even though, statistically 3 out of 10000 are recognized to suffering from MSBP. The reason for low reporting happens as the case goes under-discovered. The abusive parent sometimes uses different names and can visit many different practitioners. They preparator stop visiting certain medical practitioners when the doctor becomes suspicious. (Mercer, S., & Perdue, J) International statistics indicate that this condition is usually diagnosed when the symptoms reach their peak level. Such is the case because overt video under an assessment order may be useful as it will either record the fabrication or deter it.  Although people suffering from MSBP cannot be watched around their children even when they are in a hospital due to ethical constraints. (Foreman, D., & Farsides, C.) Abused children generally tend to be 4 years old or younger. Victims of MSBP patients are ominously found to have a sibling who is either deceased or to have had medical problems similar to the current victim of the disorder.
 The professional treating the patient of MSBP usually works with other professionals to review all medical records that have been kept of the patient. The treatment involves close collaboration with professionals, family, and community members, intensive psychotherapy for the victim and the perpetrator. It is the responsibility of the professional to assure that the child is well protected by either intensive supervision of the perpetrator or temporary or permanent removal of the child from the care of the abuser.

Citations
Foreman, D., & Farsides, C. (1993). Ethical Use Of Covert Videoing Techniques In Detecting Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 307(6904), 611-613. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29720941
Wilson, R. (2001). Fabricated Or Induced Illness In Children: Munchausen By Proxy Comes Of Age. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 323(7308), 296-297. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25467586
Meadow, R. (1989). Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 299(6693), 248-250. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29704780

Mercer, S., & Perdue, J. (1993). Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: Social Work's Role. Social Work, 38(1), 74-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23716884

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PTSD and its relationship with defense mechanisms and empathy: Character analysis of Levi Ackerman (SnK)

|Indira Bulhan Blog post: 1 “Manga is for kids” (My ignorant friend, 2018). Manga is often treated by people as something which is not so serious. However, it holds within itself some dark aspects of humanity. One such example is Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). In it, the character of Levi Ackerman has been through a series of events which sets him apart from the people around him. Through this blog post, I will look upon the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its relationship with defense mechanisms and empathy.     Levi’s past is filled with events which can act as strong stressors for the development of trauma: the death of his mother at an early age, abandonment by father, raised by his uncle in the underworld in a highly unhygienic and malnourished state (who later abandons him again), death of his two closest friends and lover. Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD can be defined as a mental disorder which can happen to peopl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Patrick Jane a psychopath?

Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Psychopathy was never recognized, until the revised DSM-5 categorized it under Anti-Social Personality Disorder. “He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with his presence” (Hare)  Psychopaths can replicate the behavior which the person they are interacting with thinks they want from them, without feeling a thing, which contributes greatly to their ability to manipulate. Psychopaths charm and lie their way seamlessly to the top, and while they lack empathy, they are well-liked because they know what to say and when to say it. Psychopaths occupy most of the positions of power in our society and corporations and thus often end up being glorified. This glorification of psychopaths is most evident in the portrayal of psychopathy in TV shows. Some of the most notable characters which the screen has ever seen, like Marlo Stanfield from ‘The Wire’, James Moriarty from ‘Sherlock’, Hanni...
Post a Comment
Read more

Patrick Bateman: A Successful Psychopath

Abigail D'Souza Personality disorders are psychological disorders characterised by rigid and pervasive patterns of behaviour that persist over time. These must be maladaptive, or cause clinically significant distress to the individual, and are typically recognizable by late adolescence, or early adulthood. The most commonly known personality disorder is Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), or rather Psychopathy, since people often assume the two are synonymous. They aren’t.   ASPD belongs to the Cluster B group of personality disorders, along with Histrionic, Narcissistic, and Borderline personality disorders. Individuals with these tend to be dramatic, emotional, and erratic (Hooley et al., 2021). ASPD is characterised by a lack of moral or ethical development; inability to follow approved models of behaviour; deceitfulness; manipulation of others; history of conduct problems as a child, etc. (Hooley et al., 2021). Psychopathy however, is more a set of traits, like superfi...
Post a Comment
Read more