Citation

Bartsch C, Risse M, Schütz H, Weigand N, Weiler G. Forensic Sci. Int. 2003; 137(2-3): 147-151.

Affiliation

Department of Legal Medicine, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Institut für Rechtsmedizin des Universitätsklinikums Giessen, Frankfurter Strasse 58, 35392 Giessen, Germany. Christine.Bartsch@forens.med.uni-giessen.de

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

14609650

Abstract

Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) is a special form of child abuse in which an adult repeatedly produces symptoms of illness in a person under his/her care. In most cases the perpetrators are mothers who repeatedly and in different ways produce or feign symptoms of illness in their children in order to obtain medical treatment for them. MSBP is thus a special form of child abuse that is also of importance in the field of forensic medicine and a particular challenge to the medicolegal expert. We report two cases of poisoning with different substances (clozapine and clonidine) detected by toxicological investigations at our Department of Legal Medicine. The relevance of the problem for the medicolegal expert and the importance of an interdisciplinary co-operation are pointed out.

Language: en