Uncommon presentation: Folie à deux (Case study)

Folie à deux, Shared Psychosis or Induced Delusional Disorder is a rare psychotic syndrome which involves transference of a delusional belief and or abnormal behaviour from one individual to another or others who has/ have been in close association with the primary affected person. This is a case study of a married couple with five children from the Northern Province of Zambia. The wife strongly believed herself to be a prophetess and prophesied that the world would soon come to an end. She influenced her husband into this belief and together including children started praying and fasting on the isolated farming plot to an extent that children were not allowed to attend school and either couple was not seen at a local market or elsewhere. The last born son of about one and half years apparently had developed a fever during this period of isolation. The child died five days after the onset of the fever. The death was not reported to authorities in the belief that the body would be resurrected. Relatives and neighbours found the body in a decomposed state two weeks later after forcing their way into the house in which the couple had barricaded itself with the children. Both husband and wife were charged with Murder in a High Court contrary to Section 200 of the Penal Code Chapter 87 the Laws of Zambia. To the best of our knowledge this is the first documented case of Folie à deux from Zambia.