Published October 24, 2021 at 17.02
Domestic. In a study that included 13 children with so-called abandonment & shy; syndrome, the researchers found that children who were separated from the rest of the family recovered. A residence permit was not necessary for the children to get well, the researchers from the Center for Research & Bioethics (CRB) at Uppsala University state.
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In Sweden, more than 1,000 minors have suffered from so-called abandonment syndrome.
The disease, which was previously called apathy, was first noticed in Sweden in 1998. It only seems to exist in Sweden and affects children of asylum seekers from certain countries who are at risk of deportation.
Swedish authorities, media and politicians pretended for many years that it was a real illness that could be cured through asylum, even though it was obvious that it was about manipulation and psychological child abuse on the part of the parents.
In the guidance to staff in health and medical care from the National Board of Health and Welfare (published 2013), the role of the family has been considered central to recovery. In addition, the granting of a residence permit has been deemed necessary. Last year, the scientific basis for the diagnosis and treatment of abandonment syndrome was examined by the Swedish Agency for Medical and Social Evaluation, SBU. The investigation showed a lack of evidence for the treatment method that is recommended – and the guidance from 2013 has now been removed from the National Board of Health and Welfare's website.
In the new study, published in the scientific journal European Child & amp; Adolescent Psychiatry, the researchers studied the documentation of treatment and health conditions for 13 children between the ages of 8 and 15 who were cared for in a treatment home between 2005 and 2020.
The documentation consisted of medical records and files from the Social Services and the treatment home. The children were treated for an average of seven months. The treatment home's method differed from that recommended by the National Board of Health and Welfare.
All children received stimulation therapy. Eight of the children were kept separate from their families, all of them recovered but only one of the five children cared for in the presence of their family recovered. Five children received residence permits but only one of them recovered.
According to the researchers, the children's recovery may have been “due to the separation or that the asylum process was not involved in the treatment, or both of these in combination”.
The documentation revealed three cases of proven simulation.
– This is the first scientific study that compares different treatment methods and the results are clear. Neither family presence nor residence permit is necessary for recovery, rather the opposite. We believe that our results should lead to a reconsideration of the treatment of children with abandonment syndrome. In addition, the risk of simulated illness must always be taken into account in case of abandonment syndrome, says Karl Sallin, doctoral student at the Center for Research and Bioethics at Uppsala University and pediatric neurologist at Astrid Lindgren's Children's Hospital in Solna, in a press release.