Does anyone know where I can find more information about Munchhausen's?

Question

Rather, does anyone know anyone with this disease?

Answer 1

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/munch...

Munchausen Syndrome Overview

Munchausen syndrome is a condition in which a person intentionally fakes, simulates, worsens, or self-induces an injury or illness for the main purpose of being treated like a medical patient. Munchausen syndrome is named after a German military man, Baron von Munchausen, who traveled around telling fantastic tales about his imaginary exploits. In 1951, Richard Asher applied the term to people traveling from hospital to hospital, fabricating various illnesses.

The term Munchausen syndrome is often used interchangeably with factitious disorder. Factitious disorder refers to any illness that is intentionally produced for the main purpose of assuming the sick role, although that purpose is unknown to the "sick" person. Munchausen syndrome most appropriately describes persons who have a chronic variant of a factitious disorder with mostly physical signs and symptoms, although there are reports in literature regarding psychological Munchausen syndrome, meaning that the simulated symptoms are psychiatric in nature.

Persons with Munchausen syndrome intentionally cause signs and symptoms of an illness or injury by inflicting medical harm to their body, often to the point of having to be hospitalized. These persons are sometimes eager to undergo invasive medical interventions. They are also known to move from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital, or town to town to find a new audience once they have exhausted the workup and treatment options available in a given medical setting. Persons with Munchausen syndrome may also make false claims about their accomplishments, credentials, relations to famous persons, etc.

A related condition, called Munchausen by proxy syndrome, refers to a caregiver who fakes symptoms by causing injury to someone else, often a child, and then wants to be with that person in a hospital or similar medical setting.

(This is part of a 2 page article on the website above. There was one other article mentioned  as well, at http://blogs.webmd.com/anxiety-and-stres... It is about confessing falsely to causing an illness. "The central focus in

false confessions and this syndrome is the thrill of publicity and the attention that will be paid to the mothers of small children--or other care givers-- who make the children sick on purpose."

Answer 2

This is the genealogy forum.  This is not the right place for this question.  The only answers you will get here is what someone googled for, and you can do that yourself.  If you are hoping for a response from someone who really knows about it, go to the mental health section where those who specialize in psychiatry hang out.  They are better knowledgeable about that and may have info above and beyond what you can google for.

Answer 3

You might get a better response to your question over in the mental health forum or the health forum,

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/dir/;_ylt=As...

I have posted the link for the health forum but if you have a look at the index panel on the left hand side mental health is listed.

Answer 4

I go to the Mayo Clinic's site for just about everything medical or health related.