Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover: Factitious Disorder Imposed on Children-Report on 2 Cases.

Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA), also known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) is a very serious form of child abuse. The perpetrator, usually the mother, invents symptoms or causes real ones in order to make her child appear sick. Usually this is due to a maladaptive disorder or to an excessive of attention-seeking on her part. We report here two new cases of FDIA. The first one is a 9-year-old boy with a history of convulsive episodes, reduced verbal production, mild psychomotor disorder and urological problems who underwent several invasive procedures and hospitalizations before a diagnosis of FDIA was made. The second is a 12 year-old girl with headache, abdominal pain, lipothymic episodes, seizures and a gait impairment, who was hospitalized in several hospitals before an FDIA was diagnosed.

[Parental evaluation of child and adolescent mental health services: a multicentric study]. / L'opinione dei genitori sui servizi di salute mentale dell'infanzia e dell'adolescenza: uno studio multicentrico.

A self-completed questionnaire for routinely assessing parents' opinions on the quality of care in child and adolescent mental health services was developed. A reliability study was performed, and the questionnaire was then introduced in the practice of 5 services. Parents' opinions were evaluated, and specific aspects of services more associated with the overall opinion were investigated. Very good results were observed in the reliability study. Parents had critical opinions about the availability of the rehabilitative equipment, emergency management, and linkage among different types of services. The judgement about health outcomes was the most important predictor of the overall opinion on the quality of services. Because of its user-friendliness, the questionnaire may be particularly suitable for routine use.