Folie á deux in a child.
Folie a deux is the transference of delusional ideas and behaviors from one person to another with whom there has been a close association. Its occurence in children has been rarely described in the literature, which was reviewed for case reports, diagnostic criteria, and etiological theories. A detailed case history of a 10-year-old girl who had delusions of special powers and delusions of persecution as well as hypochondriacal and hysterical symptoms is presented as an example of folie a deux between child and parent. This girl had developed a symbiotic incestuous relationship with her stepfather, a paranoid schizophrenic patient. Six criteria for making the diagnosis of folie a deux in a child were applied to the case studied. General and specific aspects of treating this disorder were discussed.
D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002648:Child; D003702:Delusions / Q000150:complications; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000150:complications; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D006998:Hypochondriasis / Q000150:complications; D007179:Incest; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012114:Residential Treatment; D012753:Shared Paranoid Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D012919:Social Behavior