Medical child abuse - Suspected Child Abuse
Alerts and Notices
Synopsis
Clinical presentation can vary widely, as affected individuals can appear as injured or ill from any number of diseases, but commonly these patients are high utilizers of the health care system who have symptoms that are not well explained by a known medical condition. Children affected by medical child abuse can present with fabricated or inflicted medical illness by their caregiver, and they are consequentially subject to extensive medical testing and treatment.
There are different types of medical child abuse, including:
- Exaggerated illness
- Fabricated illness
- Induced illness
Many patients will improve during hospital observation but worsen after discharge when they return to their abusive environment.
Related topics: physical child abuse, Munchausen syndrome
Codes
ICD10CM:F68.A – Factitious disorder imposed on another
SNOMEDCT:
95637005 – Munchausen syndrome by proxy
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Diagnostic Pearls
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Differential Diagnosis & Pitfalls
- Delusional disorder
- Malingering
- Munchausen syndrome
- Heavy metal poisoning (eg, lead, mercury, arsenic)
- Wilson disease
- Hemochromatosis
- Familial Mediterranean fever
- Hemophilia (hemophilia A, hemophilia B)
- Epilepsy (eg, infantile spasms, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy)
- Inherited or acquired immune deficiency syndromes
- Mitochondrial disorders
- Substance use disorders (see addiction disorders)
- Chronic pain syndromes
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Management Pearls
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Therapy
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References
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Last Reviewed:03/05/2023
Last Updated:03/09/2023
Last Updated:03/09/2023
Medical child abuse - Suspected Child Abuse