Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy Reconsidered

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Summary: Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy Reconsidered
Review: As a Director of a residential home for children and a clinician with over 25 years of experience in the field,I found Dr. Mart's book to be an astounding, educational treat. His work is a highly informative read - one that asks and answers the tough questions about MBPS. This text will be required reading for all treatment staff, as it forces one to view the field from a critical, scientific perspective.
I feel confident that this book will become the new "high water mark" in the field. A must read.

Lou Catano N.C.C.

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Summary: If You read nothing else on MSBP read this book
Review: Mart has written an important book that all of us in mental the mental health professions should read carefully. Munchausen's by proxy is the latest in a series of syndromes accepted uncritically and based largely on a very small number of tentative observations and a feedback loop which validates the concept by citation. It goes a little like this. Smith writes a paper in which he claims he has observed a case of MSBP and it had the following characteristics. Jones writes a paper and cites Smith. Smith cites Jones and so on. It is like a therapist who once told me that he knew satanic ritual abuse including human sacrifice must be occurring since he had heard it from so many patients in groups. This same sort of logic has been applied to a number of "syndromes" and MSBP is a hot topic. Mart carefully explains how the logic is flawed. He describes the errors in interpretation of the data by others who have published on MSBP and makes it clear how problems like misunderstanding of base rates and types of errors have led to reification of a questionable concept. This is an important problem not only because of the potential damage associated with false positive diagnoses of mothers as having MBPS but because we are so prone to make the same sort of thinking errors in so many areas. Most of us will never see a case of alleged MSBP. All of us can benefit from learning to develop critical thinking.

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Summary: Science to refute anecdotal stories
Review: This is an excellent book debunking the junk science of MSBP, now called PCF (pediatric condition falsification). It shows how this is just a fad of "mommy bashing", with mostly male doctors feeling threatened by advocate oriented, knowledgable moms. While MSBP may occur in very rare cases, the rash of "diagnoses" (100 to 200 by a pediatrician, Kenneth Feldman, in Seattle alone)is not supported by scientific research. Dr. Mart was even recently quoted by an appellate judge in his opinion on a MSBP case in Washington State. Dr. Mart is well respected and writes in a way which is easy to follow.