TORONTO — Be suspicious if a child with a severe dermatologic condition is unresponsive to treatment, especially if their parent or caregiver exhibits deceptive behavior.
These could be red flags for Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP), also known as factitious disorder.
“The number-one thing dermatologists can do in situations like this is be open to thinking outside the box and ask themselves the difficult question: Could this be something the parent is inflicting on the child,” Kelly Frasier, DO, a dermatology clinical trials and epidemiology research fellow, at Northwell Health, Long Island, New York, told Medscape Medical News.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: Be Aware of Cutaneous Signs (medscape.com)