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Michael Kohlhaas Syndrome – Taking the court to court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2021

Louisa Ward*
Affiliation:
Worcestershire Health and Care NHS trust
*
*corresponding author.
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Abstract

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Objective

To explore Michael Kohlhaas syndrome and development of litigious paranoia.

Case report

A 50-year-old Swiss woman spent a number of weeks travelling around the UK, reporting to police that her family in Switzerland were working with their police, doctors and the mafia to kill her. She was therefore running away for her own safety, and trying to seek legal help to investigate. She had been in close contact with a woman in London who claimed to be able to give her legal aid in exchange for payment. On admission to the ward, it was felt that the legal aid was actually feeding her persecutory delusions.

Discussion

We discovered that she had in fact been detained in Switzerland prior to coming to the UK, and the discharge report was obtained which diagnosed her with Michael Kohlhaas syndrome and Folie a deux.

Conclusion

This poster will further explore Michael Kohlhaas syndrome and litigious paranoia, with connection to this case.

Type
Case Study
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
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