“folie a Deux” in Identical Twin Sisters

Here is a case report of Folie a Deux in a pair of identical twin sisters. Tnis is a rathe.' intce.ting situation as bo'.h the sisters repressed considerably in their cffo.-t to cope with the situational problem which ultimately erupted first in the younger twin and later in the other. The distortion of reality of developing into an acute psychotic illness was transferred from the younger in the elder twin. The case is more interesting because both of them re,po ided to the in-patient treatment and contrary to the recommended practice, due to lack of available facilities, they were bo h kept together in the same ward. Bo:h were admired and discharged from the hospital on the same day. CASE REPORT Mrs. "MS"-19 years old-married housewife having oily primary education came from a lower middle socio economic status. She lived in a joint family setup. This was her 3rd admission in the Davis Institute of Neuro-psychiatry suffering from a psychotic excitement. Site predominantly had par-anoid symptoms in the form of delusions of persecution by her mother-in-law and brother-in-law. She was seriously disturbed, aggressive and assaultive. Before her illness she was of a dominating cyclothymic extroverted personality and had a social mixing temperament. She had her first episode of psychotic breakdown in the form of Manic Excitement at the age of H years before her marriage. The 2nd and 3rd episodes occurred after her marriage. The elder sister Mrs. "SS" was also admited on the same day as her elder sister with identical presenting features. This was her 2nd episode. The first episode occurred 2 years earlier and followed the breakdown of the other sister. Premorbidly she was introverted, shy, submissive and of a gentle temperament. Before the onset of the illness i. e. the 2nd attack of the younger twin and the first attack of the elder twin, both the sisters were staying with their husbands in the same bouse in a joint family setup. Then the dispute for property and land commenced in th; family. This dispute had been going on for over a year when about 3 weeks prior to the onset of the illness, both the husbands had a serious quarrel with their elder brotl ers and in the melee there were accusations and recriminations where in the mother-in-law accused the daughters-in-law for the trouble. The younger twin sister however, accused the mother-in-law for this dispute while …