Dermatozoa delusion
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| F06.0 | Organic hallucinosis |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
The dermatozoa delusion (literally "skin-animals delusion") is the delusional idea that living things (mostly worms or insects) are under the skin and move, which leads to fear and itching. Affected people feel the uncorrectable certainty that their skin is infected with parasites , even if there is no clinical evidence of this. The term goes back to Karl-Axel Ekbom from 1938, which is why it is also known as Ekbom syndrome . Other names are insects delusion , attack delusion , Epizoonose mania , delusional vermin , chronic tactile hallucinosis , Acarophobie , Entomophobie or Parasitophobie . Special form of parasitosis .
causes
The detectable etiologies include cocaine abuse , amphetamine abuse , alcohol withdrawal with delirium , diseases of the central nervous system and brain injuries .
Diagnostics and therapy
Other physical illnesses must be excluded from the differential diagnosis. Treatment is difficult because patients often reject a mental disorder as the cause and believe in somatic causes. The therapy takes place with neuroleptics . There are only a few findings from controlled studies on the effectiveness of individual substances; pimozide , haloperidol or risperidone are used .
Media reception
In the films Hellbound - Hellraiser II (1988), A Scanner Darkly (2006) and Bug (2006) you see delusional dermatosis from the perspective of a patient.
In the animated series The Simpsons there is an allusion to the dermatozoa madness: The motto of the Springfield Psychiatric Center is “ Because There May Not Be Bugs On You ” (German: “Because maybe there are no vermin crawling around”).
The controversial Morgellons disease concept is mostly assigned to the dermatozoal madness in scientific medicine. The dissemination as an independent term is attributed to the discussion on the Internet and in other media.
literature
- FC Wilson, DZ Uslan: Delusional parasitosis. (PDF) In: Mayo Clin Proc. , 2004 Nov, 79 (11), p. 1470. Review. PMID 15544029
- P. Lepping, I. Russell, RW Freudenmann: Antipsychotic treatment of primary delusional parasitosis: systematic review . In: Br J Psychiatry , 2007 Sep, 191, pp. 198-205. Review. PMID 17766758
- William D. James, Timothy G. Berger: Andrews' Diseases of the Skin: clinical Dermatology . Saunders Elsevier, 2006, ISBN 0-7216-2921-0 .
- Petra Garlipp, Horst Halthof: Rare delusional disorders. Psychopathology - Diagnostics - Therapy . Springer, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7985-1877-3 , pp. 58-66.
