Abstract
Folie à deux, Shared Psychosis or Induced Delusional Disorder is a rare psychotic syndrome which involves transference of a delusional belief and or abnormal behaviour from one individual to another or others who has/ have been in close association with the primary affected person. This is a case study of a married couple with five children from the Northern Province of Zambia. The wife strongly believed herself to be a prophetess and prophesied that the world would soon come to an end. She influenced her husband into this belief and together including children started praying and fasting on the isolated farming plot to an extent that children were not allowed to attend school and either couple was not seen at a local market or elsewhere. The last born son of about one and half years apparently had developed a fever during this period of isolation. The child died five days after the onset of the fever. The death was not reported to authorities in the belief that the body would be resurrected. Relatives and neighbours found the body in a decomposed state two weeks later after forcing their way into the house in which the couple had barricaded itself with the children. Both husband and wife were charged with Murder in a High Court contrary to Section 200 of the Penal Code Chapter 87 the Laws of Zambia. To the best of our knowledge this is the first documented case of Folie à deux from Zambia.
Highlights
Folie à deux is a rare mental disorder that may occur in two or more individuals who have close emotional contact, but only one of them suffers from a real psychotic disorder
We present the case of a married couple with Folie à deux
As pointed out above Induced Delusional Disorder or Shared Psychosis, is a rare psychiatric syndrome which involves transference of a delusional belief and or abnormal behaviors from one individual to another or others, who have been in close associated with the primary affected person
Summary
Folie à deux is a rare mental disorder that may occur in two or more individuals who have close emotional contact, but only one of them suffers from a real psychotic disorder. The delusions of this inductor are passed on to other persons who come into contact with and disappear from them when separating with an inductor. She further believed that the world was coming to an end in three months’ time the need for continued prayer and fasting On retrospective questioning, she had the belief that she was a prophetess and had the powers of predicting the future over a period of one year before the offence. On admission, the husband had already started realizing that not taking the sick child to a health center and not reporting death of the child were not right decisions and felt he should have acted differently
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