I understand that in recent postings there have been some concerns issued about Dr Wrennal's research.

It may therefore be of interest to those who have posted about Lynne in the past to take a gander at her latest submitted paper;

http://la-press.com/article.php?article_id=803

It is entitled "Misdiagnosis of Child Abuse Related to Delay in Diagnosing a Paediatric Brain Tumor"

I guess the title is pretty self-explanatory. In summary though it concerns a little girl whose illness wasn't diagnosed because a false allegation of MSBP/FII was enthusiastically pursued, it appears because the parents continually demanded continued efforts in diagnosing the childs condition from paediatric staff. The little girl was, after a nine-month delay, found to be suffering an optic chasm mass lesion (that's a brain tumour to you and I) and the same day that diagnosis was made, proceedings to have the girl taken into care were dropped. The nine-month delay in diagnosis can be attributed entirely to the false allegation of MSBP/FII. That delay has impacted upon the girls prognosis, as detailed at the end of the paper.

This case raises many questions, not least in that it reinterates one of Dr Wrennals previous contentions that false MSBP/FII allegations are on occasions made to defect failures of, or unwillingness to pursue adequate medical diagnosis.

It would be interesting for those critics of Dr Wrennall who subscribe to the CareSpace forum to give the paper a thorough reading and perhaps offer-up their comments - critisisms or otherwise, of the submitted research and recommendations. It should be noted that their is no implied critisism of social workers in the paper, although paediatricians don't come off so well.

Thanks

Brendan 

A really interesting article/case study. Thanks for posting the link Brendan and I also noted your (and others - in particular the father's) comments to Dr. Wrennal's paper. 

It would be easy to say that the real lessons here are for the medical staff, in terms of their presumption of no organic cause for the child's condition and assuming that the uneducated (i.e. non-medical staff) questioning their methods and expertise is not something that right-thinking people do.

However, the issue of 'groupthink', in particular 'risky shift' thinking, in the context of the strategy meeting is extremely relevant for social services and other statutory agencies given the fact that meetings between professionals where such far-reaching decisions are made (e.g. conferences, planning meeting, strategy meetings) are an all too common occurence.

I shall continue my cogitations..........