MUNCHAUSEN-SYNDROME BY PROXY

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a form of child abuse presenting as a disease produced or simulated by a parent, the mother in most cases. I ts diagnosis is uneasy because of its miscelleneous and unusual clinic al presentation and of the misleading apparently normal attitude of th e parents. Physicians may participate in the abuse by insistently look ing for diagnostic and therapeutic measures, therefore contributing to the significant mortality of the syndrome. It is therefore important that physicians consider Munchausen syndrome in any ambiguous situatio n in order to protect the child by an early diagnosis.