Delusional sharing: a history focus-on and case report of folie à deux

• DOI: 10.1708/2737.27910
• Publication Date: 2017-01-01
• Authors: Balducci, Pierfra...; Gobbicchi, Chiara; Moretti, Patrizia; Tortorella, Alfonso
• Keywords: Psychotropic Drugs; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Middle Aged; Mother-Child Relations; 3. Good health; Shared Paranoid Disorder; Europe; History, 17th Century; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; folie a deux, history, induced psychotic disorder, shared psychotic disorder; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Italy; Social Isolation; Witchcraft; Commitment of Mentally Ill; Humans; Female; Aged; Bereavement

Folie à deux (FAD) is a clinical condition that was first described by Lasègue and Falret in 19th century. They reported a rare condition where two or more people shared delusional ideas from a person to another. Nowadays a trace of this historical diagnosis and its theoretical framework, could be found on ICD-10 where FAD is translated in “Shared Psychotic Disorder”. Given the lack of literature and a well-defined set of symptoms it is hard to detect the clinical limits of FAD. Furthermore, the complex of comorbidities could lead to a misdiagnosis. In this paper we report a peculiar case of FAD with an historical focus trying to give a wider point of view and tools to recognize this unconventional psychiatric diagnosis.