Share Delusional Disorder

Share Delusional Disorder

Context: A rare psychotic disorder called ‘shared delusion disorder’ may lie at the root of the murder of two women by their parents in Andhra Pradesh.

Concept:

About Share Delusional Disorder

• Early evaluations of the mental health status of the arrested parents and their erratic behavior suggests that they may be having “Share Delusional Disorder”.
• It is a psychotic disorder referred to as ‘folie a deux’ (the French for ‘madness shared by two’) in psychiatric literature, is described as “an unusual mental disorder characterised by sharing a delusion among two or more people who are in a close relationship.
• When such a phenomenon occurs in a family, it is referred to as ‘folie a famille’. “Folie a famille” is characterised as a shared psychotic disorder within a family, in more than two members.
• One of the primary treatments currently is to separate the primary or dominant person from the more mildly affected and to provide treatment.