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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”.

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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