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Factitious illness by proxy presenting as anorexia and polydipsia by proxy
Author(s) -
Moszkowicz M,
Bjørnholm KI
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1998.tb01513.x
Subject(s) - medicine , polydipsia , proxy (statistics) , polyuria , anorexia , psychiatry , endocrinology , machine learning , computer science , diabetes mellitus
Factitious illness by proxy is a highly pathological form of parent‐child relationship. To our knowledge no former case of polydipsia by proxy has been published. The case of a 2‐y‐old boy suffering from malnutrition due to displacement of maternal anorexia and polydipsia is presented. Child psychiatric evaluation found cognitive delay and psycho‐social impairment in the child, as well as a severe mother‐child relationship disturbance. Psychological assessment showed a personality disorder with depressive and paranoid features in the mother. The father was described as a schizoid personality. The possible mechanisms of displacement are hypothesized.