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Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach
Delusional parasitosis is a psychotic illness. Patients often present to dermatologists with scars that are self-inflicted because they attempt to extract the “parasites”. We report a 58 -year-old female with an eight-month history of a crawling sensation on her skin and constant generalized itching...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cureus
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8920830/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35308744 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.22147 |
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author | Merad, Yassine Belkacemi, Malika Medjber, Mounia Matmour, Derouicha Merad, Zakaria |
author_facet | Merad, Yassine Belkacemi, Malika Medjber, Mounia Matmour, Derouicha Merad, Zakaria |
author_sort | Merad, Yassine |
collection | PubMed |
description | Delusional parasitosis is a psychotic illness. Patients often present to dermatologists with scars that are self-inflicted because they attempt to extract the “parasites”. We report a 58 -year-old female with an eight-month history of a crawling sensation on her skin and constant generalized itching, which she believed to be caused by insects and worms crawling across her skin. Examination revealed self-inflicted scratches at various stages of healing, which were limited to body parts within easy reach. The patient visited many physicians; it seems that she mutilated in an attempt to remove the offending organisms. She also presented skin scrapings and debris to her doctors, claiming that they contained worms and insects. Light pressure on the lesions did not produce any extrusion of macroparasites, and no parasites such as helminths and insect larvae (myiasis), were observed during microscopy. Thin smear scrapings were stained and examined to rule out parasitic diseases such as leishmaniasis and mycosis; however, no evidence of parasites was found. Our patient was administered with amisulpride 100 mg twice a day, which resulted in the complete remission of delusions after five weeks. The skin lesions were managed with clobetasol propionate ointment. A careful clinical examination combined with parasitological tests can be decisive in diagnosing delusional parasitosis, especially for patients from rural areas. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8920830 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Cureus |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89208302022-03-18 Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach Merad, Yassine Belkacemi, Malika Medjber, Mounia Matmour, Derouicha Merad, Zakaria Cureus Dermatology Delusional parasitosis is a psychotic illness. Patients often present to dermatologists with scars that are self-inflicted because they attempt to extract the “parasites”. We report a 58 -year-old female with an eight-month history of a crawling sensation on her skin and constant generalized itching, which she believed to be caused by insects and worms crawling across her skin. Examination revealed self-inflicted scratches at various stages of healing, which were limited to body parts within easy reach. The patient visited many physicians; it seems that she mutilated in an attempt to remove the offending organisms. She also presented skin scrapings and debris to her doctors, claiming that they contained worms and insects. Light pressure on the lesions did not produce any extrusion of macroparasites, and no parasites such as helminths and insect larvae (myiasis), were observed during microscopy. Thin smear scrapings were stained and examined to rule out parasitic diseases such as leishmaniasis and mycosis; however, no evidence of parasites was found. Our patient was administered with amisulpride 100 mg twice a day, which resulted in the complete remission of delusions after five weeks. The skin lesions were managed with clobetasol propionate ointment. A careful clinical examination combined with parasitological tests can be decisive in diagnosing delusional parasitosis, especially for patients from rural areas. Cureus 2022-02-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8920830/ /pubmed/35308744 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.22147 Text en Copyright © 2022, Merad et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Dermatology Merad, Yassine Belkacemi, Malika Medjber, Mounia Matmour, Derouicha Merad, Zakaria Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach |
title | Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach |
title_full | Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach |
title_fullStr | Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach |
title_full_unstemmed | Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach |
title_short | Delusional Parasitosis in a School Teacher Living in a Rural Area: Parasitological Approach |
title_sort | delusional parasitosis in a school teacher living in a rural area: parasitological approach |
topic | Dermatology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8920830/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35308744 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.22147 |
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