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Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update

Delusional parasitosis, also known as delusional infestation or Ekbom syndrome, is a relatively infrequent psychotic disorder characterized by an unwavering false belief that there is a parasitic infestation of the skin, despite the absence of any medical evidence that could support this claim. Delu...

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Autores principales: Reich, Adam, Kwiatkowska, Dominika, Pacan, Przemyslaw
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Healthcare 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6828902/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31520344
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13555-019-00324-3
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author Reich, Adam
Kwiatkowska, Dominika
Pacan, Przemyslaw
author_facet Reich, Adam
Kwiatkowska, Dominika
Pacan, Przemyslaw
author_sort Reich, Adam
collection PubMed
description Delusional parasitosis, also known as delusional infestation or Ekbom syndrome, is a relatively infrequent psychotic disorder characterized by an unwavering false belief that there is a parasitic infestation of the skin, despite the absence of any medical evidence that could support this claim. Delusional parasitosis can be categorized into primary, secondary, and organic forms. Sometimes, close relatives also experience identical delusions. This phenomenon was reported to occur in 5–15% of cases, and is known as shared psychotic disorder–delusional parasitosis with folie à deux. Patients with delusional parasitosis frequently seek help from many physicians. Close multidisciplinary cooperation between clinicians is often key to shortening the time taken to diagnose this disorder. Initiation of psychopharmacological therapy is a challenge, as many patients refuse any psychiatric treatment because of the stigma associated with mental illness and because of their firm belief that they have a parasitic infestation, not a psychiatric condition. For many patients, a sense of a lack of understanding leads to isolation and the development of depression symptoms, which is why it is crucial to earn the trust of such patients while taking care of them.
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spelling pubmed-68289022019-11-18 Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update Reich, Adam Kwiatkowska, Dominika Pacan, Przemyslaw Dermatol Ther (Heidelb) Review Delusional parasitosis, also known as delusional infestation or Ekbom syndrome, is a relatively infrequent psychotic disorder characterized by an unwavering false belief that there is a parasitic infestation of the skin, despite the absence of any medical evidence that could support this claim. Delusional parasitosis can be categorized into primary, secondary, and organic forms. Sometimes, close relatives also experience identical delusions. This phenomenon was reported to occur in 5–15% of cases, and is known as shared psychotic disorder–delusional parasitosis with folie à deux. Patients with delusional parasitosis frequently seek help from many physicians. Close multidisciplinary cooperation between clinicians is often key to shortening the time taken to diagnose this disorder. Initiation of psychopharmacological therapy is a challenge, as many patients refuse any psychiatric treatment because of the stigma associated with mental illness and because of their firm belief that they have a parasitic infestation, not a psychiatric condition. For many patients, a sense of a lack of understanding leads to isolation and the development of depression symptoms, which is why it is crucial to earn the trust of such patients while taking care of them. Springer Healthcare 2019-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6828902/ /pubmed/31520344 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13555-019-00324-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Review
Reich, Adam
Kwiatkowska, Dominika
Pacan, Przemyslaw
Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update
title Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update
title_full Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update
title_fullStr Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update
title_full_unstemmed Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update
title_short Delusions of Parasitosis: An Update
title_sort delusions of parasitosis: an update
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6828902/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31520344
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13555-019-00324-3
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