Fabricated Illness

Fabricated or induces illness or FII in short is a form of child abuse where the mother or whoever takes care of the child will be faking the symptoms of the illness of the child.

FII is also called the Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy. Munchausen’s Syndrome is a condition where a person acts as if he or she is ill or at times cause injury or illness to themselves. Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy is the condition where a person causes or fabricates the injury or illness to other persons.

Mothers or caretakers who have had psychological problems as well as behavioural problems like drug abuse, alcohol abuse, harming themselves as well as who have seen the death of a child are normally subjected to this condition of fabricated or induced illness.

The child should be given protection from such people. The next step is then providing psychological treatment to the mother. After she recovers completely, the child is placed back in her care.

Symptoms

The following are some of the signs of caution which indicate the child being made a subject of fabricated or induced illness:

• The child suffers form unexplained and repeated illness, sometimes more than one at a time.
• The symptoms exhibited by the child have no relation to the clinical tests.
• The child exhibits the symptoms only when the care taker or mother is there.
• The caretaker or mother has good medical background.
• The mother or caretaker is less worried about the health of the child even when he or she is in the hospital.
• The mother argues with the staff of the hospital if somebody presents a counter statement against her view.
• Mother or caretaker requests for painful procedures on the child

Some of the commonly reported fabricated signs are:

• fainting
• diarrhoea
• vomitting
• seizures
• asthma
• allergies
• apnoea or breathlessness
• psychological signs like learning difficulties or hyperactivity.

Causes

Even though the exact causes for fabricated or induced illness is not known, if the person taking care of the child has experienced some traumatic events in her life previously, the chances of the child being a subject of fabricated or induced illness is high.

Mothers or care takers who have borderline personality disorder, where the person has distorted pattern of beliefs and thoughts about them, are involved in FII.

In normal cases, these personality disorders occur as a result of some traumatic childhood experiences like being subjected to neglect or abuse, loss of loved person etc.

The motives of FII are not clear. It can be the following:

It allows the person who takes care of the child to be played the role of a very concerned and caring mother. At the same time, she passes on the responsibility of taking care of the child to the hospital staff.
It can be thought of as a way of escaping from the person’s unpleasant emotion as well as feelings.

Treatment

The person, whether it is the mother or caretaker, must undergo psychotherapy to solve the issues that forced her for the fabrications or inductions.

The child must be subjected to counselling therapies to deal with the trauma caused by the abuse after recovering his physical health.