“Dangerous relationships”: Family dynamics among members with severe mental illness. about a case

Abstract

A 51-year-old woman from a Mediterranean location with a history of a brother diagnosed with schizophrenia, moved thirty years ago, away from her family of origin, when marrying a man suffering from severe untreated OCD, who in turn, has two brothers, both with OCD, and a nephew with OCD. She says that her husband is very unsociable, spends most of the day at work and comes home at night to clean for a long time until he does not see lint on the floor or a crumb on the table literally. They have a fifteen-year-old son, with needy materials, very attached to the mother and very little to the father. The patient consults, motivated by a former sister-in-law and a friend, because they have noticed deterioration in their self-care and tendency to isolation, which the patient explains because in the last year she has noticed exacerbation of the comments by her neighbours and even unknown people that tell her “look how dirty, your husband has to come after work to clean your house, and makes noise.” The companions are also concerned that the child has had school and social problems and admits hearing the same as his mother. Now, What possible diagnoses do we propose in this patient: Folie a deux, delusional disorder, paraphrenia, other? (Figure 1)

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Figure 1