In 1794, at the age of 74, Munchausen's married Bernhardine Brun, then 17 years old. It is said that on their wedding night, the baron retired early, and his bride spent the night dancing with another. In 1795, Bernhardine gave birth to a son. Following the birth of this child, it was whispered that "the life of the Munchausen child will likely be short." The boy, named Polle, died at approximately 1 year of age under suspicious circumstances.

Almost a century later, an unusual behavior pattern among young men gained recognition in the writings of Charcot. In 1877, he described adults, who through self-inflicted injuries or bogus medical documents, attempted to gain hospitalization and treatment. Charcot called this condition "mania operativa passiva."

Seventy-four years later, in 1951, Richard Asher described a similar pattern of self-abuse, where individuals fabricated histories of illness. These fabrications invariably led to complex medical investigations, hospitalizations, and at times, needless surgery. Remembering Baron von Munchausen's and his apocryphal tales, Asher named this condition Munchausen's Syndrome. 

Today, Munchausen's Syndrome is a recognized psychiatric disorder. The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders (DSM III-R) describes it as the "intentional production of physical symptoms."

(Note:  In contrast to its adult namesake, the American Psychiatric Association's DSM III-R does not consider Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy a psychiatric disorder.)

MUNCHAUSEN'S SYNDROME BY PROXY

The term "Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy" (MSBP) was coined in a 1976 report describing four children who were so severely abused they were dwarfed.  In 1977, Roy Meadow described a somewhat less extreme form of child abuse in which mothers deliberately induced or falsely reported illnesses in their children. He also referred to this behavior as MSBP. 

Over the years, alternate terms, such as "Polle's syndrome" and "Meadow's syndrome," have been suggested; however, these terms never gained popularity. 

Tragically, MSBP victims are usually children, and the perpetrators are almost always parents or parent substitutes. If and when victims are hospitalized, they may be subjected to multiple, and at times, dangerous diagnostic procedures that invariably produce negative or confounding results. When the victim and abuser are separated, however, the victim's symptoms cease. When confronted, the abuser characteristically denies any knowledge of how the child's illness occurred.