Skip to main content



Child-Maltreatment-Research-L (CMRL) List Serve

Browse All Past CMRL Messages

Welcome to the archive of past Child-Maltreatment-Research-L (CMRL) list serve messages (11,000+). The table below contains all past CMRL messages (text only, no attachments) from Nov. 20, 1996 - January 31, 2024 and is updated every two months.

Instructions: Postings are listed for browsing with the newest messages first. Click on the linked ID number to see a message.

Message ID: 11005
Date: 2021-11-08

Author:Lisa Fontes

Subject:factitious disorder by proxy of an intimate partner?

Dear Colleagues, In connection with some work I am doing around the Drugging of Intimate Partners, I wondered if anyone had investigated the notion of Factitious Disorder by Proxy of an intimate partner. I cannot find anything in the literature. I am aware of more than one case in which a domestic abuser (not necessarily physically violent, but coercively controlling) gave drugs deceptively to his partner to disable her, or pretended to give her needed medication but was giving her something else. In all these cases this prompted extensive medical visits and diagnostic tests. In three of the cases I know of, the perpetrators were medical professionals of some kind. Anyone else interested in this/exploring this/know of resources related to this? BTW, feel free to join a no-cost webinar on Drugging an Intimate Partner on November 11. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3816346929636/WN_gxUeo9eeROCWlKR-MHz7vA Lisa Lisa Fontes, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer II, University of Massachusetts Amherst Author: Invisible Chains: Overcoming Coercive Control in Your Intimate Relationship

Dear Colleagues, In connection with some work I am doing around the Drugging of Intimate Partners, I wondered if anyone had investigated the notion of Factitious Disorder by Proxy of an intimate partner. I cannot find anything in the literature. I am aware of more than one case in which a domestic abuser (not necessarily physically violent, but coercively controlling) gave drugs deceptively to his partner to disable her, or pretended to give her needed medication but was giving her something else. In all these cases this prompted extensive medical visits and diagnostic tests. In three of the cases I know of, the perpetrators were medical professionals of some kind. Anyone else interested in this/exploring this/know of resources related to this? BTW, feel free to join a no-cost webinar on Drugging an Intimate Partner on November 11. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3816346929636/WN_gxUeo9eeROCWlKR-MHz7vA Lisa Lisa Fontes, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer II, University of Massachusetts Amherst Author: Invisible Chains: Overcoming Coercive Control in Your Intimate Relationship