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Husbands and Wives Admitted to Mental Hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Ian Gregory*
Affiliation:
From the Ontario Hospital, London, Canada and the Department of Psychiatry University of Western Ontario
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There have been a few studies of the nature and frequency of mental disorder in the offspring of marriages in which both parents were known to have been mentally ill (Schulz, 1940; 1941, Elsaesser, 1952; Lewis, 1957). A number of psychoses affecting both husband and wife have also been described as examples of folie à deux. Gralnick (1942) reviewed the literature, and found altogether 118 cases of folie à deux, but Ascher (1949) has concluded that such cases are commoner than would appear. The majority of those reported have involved blood relatives, in whom the implications of a “psychosis of association” are questionable, because of similarities in their genetic endowment (Kallmann and Mickey, 1946). However, Gralnick recorded 26 cases of folie à deux involving husband and wife.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1959 

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