Volume 7, Issue 4 (Winter 2006)                   Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2006, 7(4): 51-55 | Back to browse issues page

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Abstract:   (2499 Views)
Objective: Only a few cases of factitious disorder by proxy with psychiatric symptoms have been reported (OCD) in children up to the present. Familiarity with these patients can remind clinicians of the importance of considering this diagnosis.  
Method: The present study reports the case of an 8-year-old girl, referred by her grandmother for the treatment of obsessive symptoms. The child had been referred to different doctors for the treatment of the same symptoms in the previous three years and had received fluoxetine up to 60 mg/d.  
Results: No improvement was observed in the course of therapy. Also, no obsessive symptom was found in the evaluations. Her function in academic and interpersonal domains was completely normal. Her mother has paranoid schizophrenia and the child suffers from this situation. The child lives with her grandmother and does not have appropriate emotional relationship with her mother and grandmother. She stated that according to her grandmother, she could avoid a disorder similar to her mother’s, through scrupulous hygiene. Her grandmother suffered from guilt feeling due to the inappropriate treatment of her daughter. She was giving the drug at twice the prescribed dose to the child and insisted on increasing the dosage or changing the drug due to the lack of response of the child to treatment. 
Conclusion: In light of the evaluations, a diagnosis of factitious disorder by proxy was made for the child. By separating the child from her grandmother and arranging supportive psychotherapy sessions, her obsessive symptoms improved.
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Type of Study: case report | Subject: Special
Received: 2005/08/16 | Accepted: 2005/10/23 | Published: 2005/12/22

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