A Medical Mystery: Delusional Parasitosis?

"Patients claim fibers sprout from lesions and parasites crawl under their skin. Most doctors tell them it's all in their heads..."

www.rgj.com...

I found this articale on Coast to Coast. Very interesting and vary scary I think. What scares me the most is if you have something wrong with you and it's not text book, most doctors will more than likely just dismiss it and think you are nuts. I have never heard of this disease before or anything like it. "Fibers sprouting from skin lesions", YEEUK. Has anyone else heard of this?

you are missing the point. the pts are suffering from delusions. In other words, there are no fibers sprouting from thier skin, they only think there are.

(The dermatologist) admitted he did not know what made the fibers, but was not willing to help me find out,� Leitao said. �His final diagnosis was eczema. He gave my son topical eczema medication, which did not help.�

As she left his office, she saw the doctor going out to lunch with his wife and 4-year-old son.

�Not a care in the world,� she said. �What is wrong with these guys? No innate scientific curiosity or human empathy?

�I realized I was on my own.�

But a controversial new theory says many people who are branded with delusions of parasitosis are suffering from a physical illness, not a mental disease. Enlarged images of the �parasites� are posted on several Web sites and a Texas doctor said he has found biological causes and physical evidence for many of the symptoms described by Blodgett and others.

How can can you get images of a delusion ?
There's definitely something going on.

Do you have any idea just what is living on your skin right now?

You mean beside the fungus, bacteria, mites, virii(sp)......

HowardRoark, I do not see how I could be missing the point? The article states clearly that the doctor could see the blue fibers on the skin lesions.

Leitao said the dermatologist was initially fascinated by the blue fibers sprouting from her son�s skin lesions.

�The doctor looked at everything I showed him,� she said. �He examined Drew�s skin lesions using the handheld microscope I brought. He was so amazed at the blue fibers coming straight out of a skin lesions that he called his physician�s assistant over to look at them.�

She showed the doctor how the fibers glowed under an ultraviolet light.

�(The dermatologist) admitted he did not know what made the fibers, but was not willing to help me find out,� Leitao said. �His final diagnosis was eczema. He gave my son topical eczema medication, which did not help.�

�Once I started taking these patients seriously, I saw the variety and number of unusual and unexpected skin occupants was real, they were unequivocally there,� Harvey said. �I still don�t know what some of these things are, but my theory is that the symptoms are a phenomenon of a much larger process that has rendered their skin immunity ineffective.�

Yes, some people are having delusions of parasits. But there are some who are not.

Sounds like a classic case of munchasen by proxy to me.

The mother certainly seems to be milking this for all of the attention she can get.