Munchhausen syndrome
Recurrent feigning of catastrophic illnesses. Munchhausen syndrome is a psychological disorder that is characterized by the recurrent presentation of the patient for treatment of an acute and often dire illness that is, in reality, not present.
The person with Munchhausen syndrome usually gives a plausible and dramatic history. All of it is entirely false. The patient tends to go from hospital to hospital feigning medical or surgical diseases and giving false and fanciful information about their medical and social background. They may even have unnecessary surgery repeatedly, resulting for example in a “mass of scars” on the abdomen, what has been called a “gridiron abdomen.” Some patients with Munchhausen’s syndrome cause their own illness, as by secretly ingesting or injecting substances.
The syndrome was named by an astute English physician Richard Asher in 1951 after the German cavalry officer Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymous von Munchhausen (1720-97), a teller of tall tales.
Although Asher named the syndrome, he did not discover it. In 1893 Henry Miege, a student of the famed French neurologist Jean Charcot, wrote his thesis on patients with the syndrome and Charcot (1825-1893) referred to it in his own writing. Forty years later, the Kansas psychiatrist Karl Menninger (1893-1990) discussed the subject in a paper entitled “Polysurgery and Polysurgical Addiction.”
However, it was Asher’s article that crystallized the syndrome and brought it to general medical attention. The first sentence in Asher’s article stated, “Here is described a common syndrome which most doctors have seen, but about which little has been written.” This prompted a flurry of responses in which doctors testified that they, too, had had patients with this mysterious malady.
Although the Baron’s name was Munchhausen, it is commonly written without the umlaut as “Munchhausen” in English.
Read Also:
- Munchhausen syndrome
(This is an alternate entry to Münchausen syndrome. Münchausen has an umlaut over the u but it is sometimes written as “Münchausen” without the umlaut in English.) A recurrent feigning of catastrophic illnesses, a psychological disorder that is characterized by the recurrent presentation of the patient for treatment of an acute and often dire illness […]
- Murine typhus
An acute infectious disease with fever, headache, and rash, all quite similar to, but milder than, epidemic typhus, caused by a related microorganism, Rickettsia typhi (mooseri), transmitted to humans by rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis). The animal reservoir includes rats, mice and other rodents. Murine typhus occurs sporadically worldwide but is more prevalent in congested rat-infested […]
- Murmur
A sound due to vibrations from the flow of blood through the heart or great vessels. A murmur may be innocent and be of no significance. Or it may be pathologic and reflect disease. A murmur is usually heard with a stethoscope.
- Mus musculus genome
All of the genetic information contained in Mus musculus, the laboratory mouse. The genomes of particular nonhuman organisms such as the mouse have been studied for a number of reasons including the need to improve sequencing and analysis techniques. These nonhuman genomes also provide powerful sets of data against which to compare the human genome. […]
- Muscle
Muscle is the tissue of the body which primarily functions as a source of power. There are three types of muscle in the body. Muscle which is responsible for moving extremities and external areas of the body is called “skeletal muscle.” Heart muscle is called “cardiac muscle.” Muscle that is in the walls of arteries […]