Prevention and management of false memory syndrome

Abstract

As with most issues in medicine, the prevention and management of a problem is best understood when the origins are known. The term ‘false memory syndrome’ (FMS) came into use in March 1992 with the foundation of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF), a non-profit-making organisation established in the USA by a group of families in which one or more of the parents was accused. The parents in these families were reacting to a phenomenon which developed in a characteristic form in the preceding decade and had become common enough by 1991 for a number of them to realise that they were not alone, and to join in setting up the Foundation with a professional and scientific advisory board.