A paranoid migrant family – folie à famille

Abstract

AbstractThis 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.