An American woman has been charged with endangering the life of her adopted son. She indicated that he was afflicted with an incurable condition and caused him to endure years of medical suffering, when the boy was in fact not ill. This mother had a disorder called “Münchhausen syndrome by proxy”.
- A person can have Münchhausen syndrome by proxy, if they claim that their child has a complex and serious medical history or if their child has symptoms that do not match test results or are worsening for no apparent reason .
- Münchhausen syndrome by proxy is difficult to detect. However, health professionals may suspect that the parent is suffering from the disease when the child is away from them and their condition improves.
Inventing an incurable pathology due to an abnormality of the chromosomes to his child when he was in good health. This is what Kristy Schneider, a woman from Arkansas (United States), did for a few years. Between 2017 and 2019, this American would have given false information about the state of health of her adopted son, Louie Schneider, to health professionals.
She allegedly told them that her child had a rare disease that caused developmental delay, strokes and heart problems. His goal was that the boy could benefit from care when he was not sick. Kristy Schneider, who accompanied her child to all his medical consultations, told the story of her son on the Internet. Many media have relayed the fight of Louie Schneider and his adoptive family.
“He missed his death”
In 2019, the truth came out. At this time, the 9-year-old boy was hospitalized to undergo treatment to support him in his end of life. As the weeks went by, his state of health improved. Good news that did not seem to please his parents, especially his adoptive mother. “He missed his death”, said the American to worried caregivers, who directly alerted social services to her behavior. After this report, Louie Schneider was transferred to a clinic where he carried out a battery of examinations. The latter revealed that, clinically, he had no symptoms mentioned by Kristy Schneider.
According to the newspaper New York Post, the same year, the American and her husband lost custody of Louie Schneider. Kristy Schneider has been charged with endangering the life of a minor. The investigation eventually revealed that the mother suffered from Münchhausen syndrome by proxy.
A disorder that most often affects mothers
Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a factitious disorder. Asked by LCIin 2014, the clinical psychologist and doctor in psychopathology and psychoanalysis Catherine Granaux indicated that this disease affects mostly women.
This pathology “designates the production of symptoms in a child by an abusing adult wishing to play the role of patient through this child. This syndrome constitutes a serious ill-treatment where the care system is instrumentalized. The medical profession itself becomes an ill-treater by scheduling increasingly invasive complementary examinations”, can we read in a study published in the journal Childhood and adolescent neuropsychiatry in 2011. The goal of people who suffer from it is to attract the attention of the medical profession and the compassion of those around them.
On his websitethe National Health Service (NHS, British public health system) specifies that patients with this disorder can be very manipulative and, in the most serious cases, subject their child to painful and sometimes fatal surgeries, even if they know they are useless.
What are the causes of Münchhausen syndrome?
Several factors have been identified as possible causes of this factitious disorder. Among them, we find an emotional trauma or an illness during childhood that led to significant medical care. A personality disorder, neglect and abandonment by parents, and resentment towards authorities or health professionals can also lead to the occurrence of Münchhausen syndrome by proxy.
No clearly effective treatment
There is no effective treatment for Münchhausen syndrome by proxy. For better management of the disease, the patient must admit having lied and cooperate. “A non-aggressive, non-punitive, non-confrontational approach should be considered when diagnosing. To avoid blaming or blaming the patient, a physician may present the diagnosis as a cry for help. Alternatively, some experts recommend psychological treatment, develop thee MSD Manuala medical information portal.
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