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A paranoid migrant family – folie à famille

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Abiola Oshodi ,
Raju Bangaru  and
Jackie Benbow
Abiola Oshodi
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, Ireland
Raju Bangaru
Affiliation:
Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14, Ireland
Jackie Benbow
Affiliation:
Saint Brendan's Hospital, Grangegorman, Dublin 7, Ireland
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Abstract

This report describes a case of folie à famille in which an African man (Mr X), his wife and three daughters travelled around the world as Mr X transmitted his persecutory delusions to his family members. Mr X who had previously had two brief admissions in the UK and in Ireland, received an adequate trial of antipsychotic treatment in his third admission with us in Dublin. During informal contact with his daughter B, it became apparent that the whole family shared his delusions. On her advice, the other family members voluntarily consented for assessment and psychological interventions, they were interviewed separately. All the family members recovered following separation and psychological interventions without antipsychotic treatment. This case illustrates folie imposée, one of the four subgroups summarised by Gralnick1 from the 20th century literature. This family undertook an extreme measure of travelling around the world because of their induced delusions.

Keywords

Induced delusional disorderShared paranoid disorderFolie à familleFolie imposée
Type
Case Report
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 26 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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