Specific ideas turned out to be contagious.
Recently, media outlets, such as RBC, drew attention to the article "Induced delusional disorder in the digital age: a series of cases of virtual \"folie à trois\"".
Indian psychiatrists have for the first time identified a case of group madness in gamers. Their patients were three young men who were fond of online games:
«For three years, they spent time together in online games every day, until they all developed a shared delusion of persecution. In particular, young people began to believe that certain organizations were monitoring them using artificial intelligence (AI) in order to find vulnerabilities and predict their behavior and intentions».
At first, a man who became the "source" of such delusional thoughts turned to psychiatrists. Then the doctors contacted his "colleagues" and conducted tests - as a result, everyone was diagnosed with folie à trois (from French "madness of three / together")
This is a syndrome in which delusional ideas from one person are transmitted to two others with whom he is in close (emotional) connection.
The men underwent treatment and after 2-3 months "symptomatic improvement was achieved with partial restoration of lost social connections".
The authors of the article believe that it is necessary to further study how online communities affect the structure and content of emerging psychopathology. They noted that in the current realities, one psychological closeness may be enough to transmit delusional thoughts:
«This series of cases demonstrates a new manifestation of a common psychotic disorder in the context of digital coexistence, emphasizing that psychological rather than physical proximity may be sufficient to transmit delusional beliefs in the modern era».
