ABSTRACT
Munchausen-by-Proxy Syndrome (MBPS) is a form of child abuse in which an adult—usually the child's biological mother (Yorker, 1994)—purposely makes the child sick (often using poison, suffocation, or starvation) or fabricates symptoms in order to get medical attention for her child, which gives the mother the appearance of a loving, caring parent (Bools, Neale, & Meadow, 1994; Feldman, 1994; Jones, 1994; Porter, Heitsch, & Miller, 1994; Schreier & Libow, 1993, 1994; Yorker, 1994). Although professional papers acknowledged the existence of MBPS as early as 1966 (Feldman, 1994), it was not until 1977 that the illness was named by Dr. Roy Meadow, an English pediatrician (Feldman, 1994; Plassmann, 1994; Schreier & Libow, 1993; Yorker, 1994).
