May 11, 2004

Nyaaaargh!! Get 'em off me!! Delusional Parasitosis. It's when people think there are tiny parastites infesting or crawling beneath their skin. Well, here's the rub: it might not always be a delusion. Warning for the extra-squeamish: pictures of a nasty rash!

Doctors might usually dismiss such patients' claims because the symptoms they report match those of the psychosomatic ailment. But now, researchers claim that there is physical evidence & a real biological cause for the problems some patients report.

posted by Nostrildamus 20 years ago
  • *rubs*
  • It's not the first time doctors ignore a new disease/infection vector because the "teachers guide" doesn't list it. It's quite possibe for a fungis to take hold in the skin if the normal immune respose is subdued. When this happens all types of lovlies will join in on the fun. How long was it until auto immune deficiency syndrome was "officialy" recognised?. Regardless of whether it is physical or psycosomatic, it appears that the solution to both is to treat it as if it were real. That way, if it is real, we don't get an epidemic, if it's psycological the patient will believe themselves cured and thefore be cured.
  • i do find it kind of sad that no doctor is even willing to consider the idea that this is something biological. you'd think that an enterprising individual would realize that being the one who proves it will bring some fame, and being willing to listen and look will go a long way towards making your patients happier and more willing to trust you...
  • American doctors are strangely unfamiliar with parasitic infections. Parents of children adopted from Asia and Latin America are generally unable to get a problem fixed until child goes to a doctor who has had third-world training and picks up on the hookworm, ascariasis, etc. I have been trying to locate the reference through Google but I can't fish it out this morning.
  • A close friend of mine went to rural Central America and came back with what she firmly believed was a parasite. She made the rounds of various doctors, who brushed her off with a diagnosis of delusional parasitosis, until she began to actually question herself- as she said to me, "which is worse- to be delusional and believe that there are bugs crawling out of your skin, or to actually have bugs crawling out of your skin?" She's better now, but it took the better part of a year to get rid of it.
  • We are remarkably sheltered in North America, and may be blinkered as a result. I spent some time in the Middle East and came back with some remarkably vague and inconsistent digestive problems that even I had a hard time taking seriously. However, one course of strong antibiotics later I was back to normal health.
  • Just to add to my previous comment, I just now remembered a former coworker who spent some time in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. She came back in April 1991 with some vague digestive symptoms. None of the American doctors had any convincing diagnosis. Two years later she passed tapeworm segments. Even the nurse at her doctor's office was not convinced and thought it was something she ate, but the doctor wrote up a prescription nonetheless and she expelled the rest. Post hoc medicine.
  • This is why I hate going to the doctor. These aren't the guys that you see on ER, they're just normal schlubbs like you and me, with exactly the same kind of work ethic, except that when they skip out early on a Friday afternoon, YOU DIE!!!1!
  • Plagued by tiny dark specks and fibers. *buys Electrolux shares*
  • I knew I had lint-secreting glands in my navel. AND YOU ALL THOUGHT I WAS CRAZY.
  • Bug-shit insane, indeed
  • You're all just a bunch of formicators.
  • I'll get these damned cooties off! Someone give me a razor.
  • Sorry to pedant but it's Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, jacbo. Further: ...the solution to both is to treat it as if it were real. That way, if it is real, we don't get an epidemic, if it's psycological the patient will believe themselves cured... The sources of psychological illnesses are not often the same as those of physiological illnesses. So a patient with a psychological illness who is treated for a physiological illness will not necessarily believe that he or she is healed because there will not necessarily be any change in the psychologcial stimuli which caused the symptoms in the first place. I'm guessing you're putting much faith in the placebo effect? But I agree with you. It should be treated as if it were real to begin with. Mental illness is a fine line to gauge in a chance meeting with someone who has discovered they are infested with crawlies. Anyone might appear distraught. It seems that this form of medicine is plagued with the concept of cookie-cutter illnesses affecting moulded human beings. But as a people we do love taxonomy. There is a 75% chance that this may lead to death, but it might also be benign.
  • Reading about this makes me itch.
  • Reading about this makes me B 9. Plus itchy. *uses all 6 feet to scratch furiously*
  • I never saw this post, but I have recently read about this on other sites. A search turned up Morgellons Watch, for a different look at this phenomenon. An interesting, and sometimes heartbreaking read. Tales of people scrubbing their skin with bleach, never leaving the house, afraid to wear new socks...