Morgellons disease? Itchy skin illness all in the mind, study says
Morgellons has no physical basis, researchers say
/ istockphoto(CBS) It's all in their minds.
That's what doctors are saying about people with Morgellons disease, who claim to be infested with mysterious parasites that trigger itching, rashes, and creepy-crawly sensations in the skin.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic studied 108 patients who believed their inflamed, itchy skin was the result of a bug infestation. But biopsies and skin tests uncovered no physical cause of the unpleasant symptoms.
The study was published in the May 16 issue of Archives of Dermatology.
One thing the doctors and patients both agree on - the disease is incredibly frustrating.
"Patients often complain that the physician isn't examining their skin closely enough to see the infesting organisms," study author Dr. Mark Davis, professor of dermatology at the Mayo Clinic, told Reuters . "This study indicates that even when skin biopsies are obtained, and specimens of the organisms brought by the patients are carefully examined, there is no objective evidence of skin infestation."
But even after being told there aren't any bugs, Morgellons patients often refuse to go along - and that threatens to drive some dermatologists nuts.
"People with delusions of parasitosis are a great challenge to us," Dr. Bruce Strober, assistant professor of dermatology at New York University Langone Medical Center, told WebMD. "It's clearly a psychiatric disorder."
If Morgellons patients won't listen to reason, what can be done? Psychiatric medication and counseling are probably in order, said Strober. "Unfortunately, these patients are rarely amenable to those aproaches," he said.
The Mayo Clinic has more on Morgellons disease.
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When I asked him what he thought caused it he told me this "crazy" story about these fibers and/or tiny bug like creatures he could see and then they'd disappear and reappear. Yeah it sounded crazy but my brother is not crazy... he described how the dark "fibers" were all over him and everything in his apt, under his fingernails, in the food and eating it, clothes, furnishings. He did EVERYTHING to fumigate his apt, from washing everything with bleach to spraying bug sprays, washing things in very very hot water then drying on highest heat. He thought it was a mold or fungus... and he developed these awful sores and this killer staph infection. My brother is not nor has he ever been crazy, delusional or paranoid. He thought the things he was seeing were crazy too. His girlfriend, who also lived there, saw and suffered from them as well.
I didn't know what to think and neither did he, it sounded really weird but I believed him. He was paralyzed 1 month ago now and has been bombarded with antibiotics to kill the the staph so I hope it killed those things too. He seems to not be suffering from them since his treatment. I assume he was sterilized before his spinal surgery and having been hospitalized since, has not back to the apt. Two days ago he was moved from the hospital in Anaheim to a National Rehabilitation Center in Downey where he described what had happened to him to a doctor. The doctor said it sounded like he had this Morgellons disease.
This was first time my brother had ever even HEARD of it... so how in the hell did he dream up and experience these stranger than fiction symptoms of a disease he'd never even heard of before? How can you psychosomatically create symptoms or creatures (or whatever the heck it is!) when you've never even HEARD of it before, but meanwhile thousands of other people also have experienced it? WHY are the CDC, MAYO Clinic, and other health professionals and organizations not acknowledging that this is a real condition, parasite, disease or WHATEVER! when so many otherwise perfectly sane people are also experiencing and suffering from it? Are THEY crazy?? This IS insanity but it's not his.
He's leaving LA for Denver in 2 weeks, he's recovering miraculously from the paralysis (thankfully he suffered an incomplete SCI) and he will walk again and live a normal life again. When he said he wanted to try to get his clothes and belongings from the apt they'd lived in I said no. Don't. Leave the clothes. Leave it ALL. We will get you new clothes. He agreed. He thought that was a good idea also.
<a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1TSND_en&gcx=c&q=morgellons&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1066&bih=555">Morgellons Images</a>
I would advise people to continue to keep an open mind, and if you want to question anything, I would question why they are releasing a report with old information. Anyone who has this disease knows that there are other scientists who have been researching this 2007 and have come out with findings that are alarming and very bizarre....and quite real.
Knowing information which is often not privy to the public, I have to assume this Mayo study was either falsified, [if in fact done at all] and released solely to discredit this disease and the people who are suffering so from it. Actually I have been following this for a while and was never aware that a Mayo study was ever even done from 2001-2007. Why wasn't this study made known to the public at the time it was supposedly taking place?
IMHO, THIS is what we should be asking: not IF this disease is real, but WHY are they trying to hide the truth from the public??? Hmm...that's just as disturbing as the disease itself.
As the years have gone by new science has developed new tests that show truly that those who have fibro do have anomalies, some at the metabolic level, the nerves that send pain messages do not work correctly, and we have a number of either depleted or an over-abundance of some pretty important enzimes.
Some Drs still do not believe in the validity of our problem but more are coming around everyday. It doesn't help us much as there is no real treatment for the syndrome. Medicine simiply throws a lot of drugs at it to treat it symtomatically. But, its a start.
My point is that until science catches up with a disease the drs should just keep thier mouths shut and treat those who come to them in pain and need. Hopefully, soon, someone will figure out the Morgellans puzzle and those who suffer will find acceptance and relief instead of derision and hurtful labeling.
Then they try my gel, and it helps! It helps a lot!
Why?
Any placebo effect would have run its course when they tried the other products. Maybe my gel helps because it disrupts whatever is causing the symptoms.
Doesn't the fact that people using my Gel get better prove that Morgellons is a real pathogen?
My Gel would be ineffective if it was merely DOP.