Calls for inquiry
after cisapride linked to 136 deaths
Jamie Doward, social affairs editor
Sunday February 1, 2004
The
Observer
A drug linked to more than 100 deaths is being blamed
for a series of gross miscarriages of justice that
have seen hundreds of parents wrongly accused of child
abuse.
A conference drawing together psychologists, social
workers and scientists will hear evidence this week
that a drug called cisapride - used to treat digestive
problems and now withdrawn from the UK market - has
resulted in hundreds of cases of wrong diagnosis.
Experts will claim the drug is known to interrupt
the rhythm of the heart, causing some youngsters to
turn pale and experience breathing difficulties. Campaigners
say the symptoms have prompted doctors to wrongly
accuse parents of trying to smother their children.
The revelation will raise further questions about
the validity of the controversial condition Munchausen
Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) - first theorised in 1977
by paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow - which
suggests some parents harm their children to draw
attention to themselves.
Critics of MSBP, which has been discredited following
a series of court cases, fear it blinds social workers,
lawyers and judges to other explanations for apparent
child abuse, such as the side effects of drugs or
the symptons associated with a number of illnesses.
The conference, at Sydney University in Australia,
aims to debunk MSBPand is set to attract worldwide
attention. It will hear calls for a full investigation
into cisapride, which was withdrawn in the US and
the UK three years ago after it was linked to 136
deaths worldwide, including those of two British children.
'Given the amount of cases where cisapride has played
a significant part in the child's treatment and the
child's parents have been diagnosed as having MSBP,
it is imperative the Government launches an investigation
into this drug,' said Penny Mellor an anti-MSBP campaigner.
The Government said last month that it is to investigate
more than 250 criminal cases in which a parent had
been convicted of murdering a child. The decision
was taken after a series of overturned convictions.
Sally Clark was freed after spending three years
in jail for killing her two children. Trupti Patel
was acquitted of smothering her three babies. Angela
Cannings, jailed for killing her two sons, was released
by the Court of Appeal last December.
The Government is also planning to ask local authorities
to examine up to 5,000 cases in which children were
taken from their parents in the civil courts and in
which MSBP may have been cited. Authorities in the
US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are also under
pressure to examine cases in which parents were separated
from their children following the diagnosis of MSBP.
The first civil cases involving parents who claim
they were wrongly separated from their children as
a result of MSBP, are currently being prepared for
appeal.
Meadow and another paediatrician who has advanced
the MSBP theory, Professor David Southall, are now
the subjects of separate inquiries by the General
Medical Council. The Observer has also learnt that
there are at least four other experts in the field
of MSBP whose work is now likely to be scrutinised
by the health authorities.
Since The Observer highlighted the allegation that
MSBP was responsible for a series of miscarriages
of justice last week, numerous other cases where the
parents claim they have been wrongly separated from
their child have come to light.
In one case in Hampshire, a mother accused of MSBP
was separated from her two seriously ill twins but
allowed to keep her other two children. The twins
were eventually put into care and the mother was forced
to give the other two children up for adoption. She
subsequently emigrated to New Zealand where she alleges
British social services contacted counterparts there
with the result that two other children she had with
another partner ended up being taken into care. Her
case is one of the first that is expected to be appealed
this year.
Janssen Pharmaceutica, makers of cisapride, declined
to comment.
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