Children in Whom Illness is Fabricated or Induced
Last updated: October 7, 2008
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Fabricated or Inducted Illness (previously referred to as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy) is a rare and potentially dangerous form of child abuse in which the parent/carer fabricates symptoms in their child or induces them by a variety of means.
Research has shown that the way in which a case of fabricated or induced illness is managed can have a major impact on the outcome for the child. The key issues are to assess the impact of fabricated or induced illness on the outcome for the child’s health and development and to consider how best to safeguard that child. This requires a clear and sound multi-agency approach, ensuring that all appropriate professionals are involved.
There are 3 main ways of fabricating or inducing illness in a child either solely or in combination:
- fabrication of signs and symptoms, including past medical history
- falsification of records, letters, documents, hospital charts, specimens of bodily fluids
- induction of illness by a variety of means.
A child may be harmed directly by the induction of illness, or indirectly harmed by unnecessary investigations, hospital admission or surgery in response to a falsified history, charts or specimens.
This guidance recognises that children and young people who are the subject of fabricated or induced illnesses need to be safeguarded and those responsible for perpetrating such crimes against children should be appropriately dealt with, and that to achieve these all the agencies must to work closely together.
