MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME EXPLAINED
Last week I received an enquiry as to whether Munchausen syndrome is common in Botswana and also to outline its presenting symptoms. Today’s discussion will focus on explaining this syndrome.
Munchausen syndrome; which is also called factitious disorder, is a type of disorder characterised by deceiving people to by appearing to be sick or purposively getting sick. The assumption of sickness is for underlying psychological reasons in order for the individual to gain sympathy and attention and is most common among young adults. People who have experienced childhood trauma may be at risk to experience this disorder as are people with self-esteem issues and identity problems.
There are several striking symptoms suggestive of Munchausen syndrome which includes having visited the hospital several times and doing many tests with inconclusive results, displaying new set of symptoms after tests conducted were negative and failure for symptoms to improve despite medical treatment. Some may even go to the extent of contaminating urine samples with blood or put sugar in it to tamper with results! The other challenge is the use of multiple health practitioners by the individuals which hinders continuity of health care. The use of multiple practitioners is also to ensure that symptoms are exaggerated as having been attended to by many experts and without any improvement.
For a diagnosis to be made, the symptoms should not be confirmed by anyone leaving with the patient and that the symptoms do not make sense on a given criteria. Individuals having these problem are always keen for invasive procedures and do not respond to several prescribed treatments in a predictable and remarkable manner.
Many complications can arise out of this. There may be adverse reactions from the many prescribed drugs. The symptoms portrayed by those having the syndrome may be so convincing that unnecessary treatment is prescribed and to some extent even surgery!
It is difficult process in treating this syndrome as most of the people diagnosed with it do not normally admit to faking symptoms. They may as result not accept psychiatric intervention, yet there is evidence of cognitive behavioural therapy being helpful to them. It is worthwhile to not openly confront these individuals about faking illness but rather get to the bottom of their problems and address them.
dsmangwegape@gmail.com FACEBOOK; David Sidney Mangwegape