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Delusional Infestation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Michael Morris
Michael Morris*
Affiliation:
Institute of Medical Genetics, University of Wales College of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff CF4 4XN; New England Huntington's Disease Research Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
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Extract

The patient who develops the delusional conviction that he/she is infested with small organisms, such as mites or insects, has been recognised in the medical literature for over a century. A wide range of descriptive terms — ‘dermatophobia’ ‘acarophobia’, ‘parasitophobia’ and ‘entomophobia’ (Table 1) have been applied to this symptom. Such terminology is now inappropriate but it has continued to be used until relatively recently: Pope (1970), for example, defined parasitophobia as “a delusional state in which there are sensations of infestation of the skin by insects”.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 159 , Issue S14: Delusions and Awareness of Reality , November 1991 , pp. 83 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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