Patient--Sexual Predator?

Published

Just wanted to tell you all about a strange case I have.

Guy says his conscience can't take it anymore, he has to confess that he is a sexual predator and wants to make a full confession.

So of course the authorities are called and they do their thing...the guy tells me later that he knows he is going to prison for the rest of his life, and secretly I'm thinking that even life in prison is too good for this scum...

but then he starts to tell me details---and the crazy thing is---his information is so convoluted, it would be just about impossible for what he says to have happened. (Example---he says he has molested children on the unit, but there are NO children on the unit...they are not even allowed to visit...he also says that the mother of one of the kids is his room-mate on the floor, which is also impossible because obviously, we don't room m and f together). Has anyone heard of someone having delusions like this? I'm not saying that I'm just chalking it all up to delusion---of course we are playing it safe---but the guy doesn't make any sense!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

There is a mental disorder associated with this but I am not sure what it is called. Almost like Munchausen's Syndrome.

I'm a true crime book junkie, and I have read about these people who show up at the police station to "confess" to everything from rape and murder to grand larceny. Only these people had nothing to do with the crimes. It's some sort of sick attention seeking behavior.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Trauma/ED.

I have had this kind of thing happen a lot on the psych floor with schizophrenics and even other psychosis'.

Problem is you can't simply chart what they said without following up with the authorities or the MD because we can't assume that these are delusions. Sounds like you did the right thing :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
There is a mental disorder associated with this but I am not sure what it is called. Almost like Munchausen's Syndrome.

I'm a true crime book junkie, and I have read about these people who show up at the police station to "confess" to everything from rape and murder to grand larceny. Only these people had nothing to do with the crimes. It's some sort of sick attention seeking behavior.

WOW, I'd be very interested if you could find the name of that disorder. Also, is there a name for people who share a delusion?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Utilization Management.
WOW, I'd be very interested if you could find the name of that disorder. Also, is there a name for people who share a delusion?

You mean like mass hysteria or a cult like the people who killed themselves thinking they were going to meet later in outer space somewhere?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER/Trauma.
cult like the people who killed themselves thinking they were going to meet later in outer space somewhere?
Heaven's Gate?
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute Med, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology.

chart it well and let the physician know. maybe he needs to go in for a full psychiatric workup. prehaps he does have a psychiatric problem, but you cant assume it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Utilization Management.

Yeah, Roy, those are the ones. It was so weird, the sneakers lined up and the clothes all neat....

Very creepy, but wouldn't you agree they all were suffering from the same delusion?

(I haven't looked at the link yet, I'm just going on memory....)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I agree. You have to take the confession seriously. But it can get to the point where the police department is on a first name basis with the guy and everytime there is a murder or crime publicized they will expect the guy to come in to confess...almost funny, though. Picture it: police department. Murder just released to the news press. That afternoon they look up to see so-and-so coming in to make a confession, he's guilty of most every unsolved murder in the area. Only in reality he is too chicken to swat a fly....I'll try to look up something on that disorder.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.
WOW, I'd be very interested if you could find the name of that disorder. Also, is there a name for people who share a delusion?

Folie a deux

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR.

My last semester of nursing school, this happened to a classmate of mine. His patient(psych patient) was severly depressed and had tried to kill himself because he believed he was a child molester...yet there was no proof that he had actually molested anyone. The cops had investigated and found nothing. Very strange.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case Management, Home Care, ICU, BMT,.

As far as I can remember, the shared delusion is called folie a deux. This is 2 or more people who share the same delusion. I've seen it only once; 2 sisters who tried to suicide by jumping through a plate glass window in a local department store to get away from a man who had been persuing them for years. The local police were well acquainted with the 2 elderly women, as the women frequently called the police to report that the man was looking in their windows, etc.

The constant confessing could be factitious disorder, but some kind of guilt complex may be at work there as well. I believe Munchausen's is a subset of factitious disorder and only refers to faking medical problems.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion