Shared Psychotic Disorder (Folie a deux) and Huntington's Disease

Introduction Folie a deux describes a rare psychiatric disorder of mostly closely related persons. The main feature of this disease is the unconditional adoption of the delusions of the primarily diseased person by the second person. This disturbance most frequently originates from a paranoid schizophrenia. Method Our case is the first published description of a married couple with shared psychotic disorders which were caused by a genetically verified Chorea Huntington of the husband. Results The symptoms of the wife quickly declined after spatial separation from her primarily diseased husband. Thus, in her case it was assumed that she suffered from a Folie imposee which is a sub form of the Folie a deux. Discussion Our case report demonstrates that not only a paranoid schizophrenia but also an organic psychosis may cause this very interesting form of shared psychotic disorder.