psychiatric disorders
Shared Psychosis
Introduction
Shared psychosis occurs when people acquire a delusion from someone with whom they have a close personal relationship. Psychosis refers to symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking and speech, and bizarre and inappropriate motor behavior (including catatonia) that indicate loss of contact with reality. (See also Introduction to Schizophrenia and Related Disorders .) ) is now considered a subset of Delusional Disorder . It usually occurs in a person or group of people (usually a family) who are related to a person with a significant delusional disorder or Identifying who in the relationship has the primary psychosis is important because the person with the secondary disorder typically does not maintain the delusional beliefs when separated from the person with the primary disorder. Counseling and therapy can usually help people who have a shared psychosis. Usually, the person with the psychotic symptoms needs pharmacologic treatment. 