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Delusional parasitosis
Classification & external resources

DiseasesDB	9622
eMedicine	derm/939

Delusional parasitosis is a form of psychosis in which sufferers hold a delusional belief they are infested with parasites. ^[1]

Delusional parasitosis is also referred to as "Ekbom's Syndrome," named after a Swedish neurologist, Karl Axel Ekbom,^[2] who published seminal accounts of the disease in 1937 and 1938. It is not to be confused with Wittmaack-Ekbom syndrome (restless legs syndrome).

Contents 1 Treatment 2 Fictional accounts 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

If due to stimulant abuse, the primary treatment is to cease the use of stimulants. The chronic condition is treated much as other delusional disorders and schizophrenia. In the past, pimozide was the drug of choice when selecting from the typical antipsychotics. Currently, atypical antipsychotics such as olanzapine or risperidone are used as first line treatment.

• A fictional account of delusional parasitosis is given in the opening chapter of Philip K. Dick's novel A Scanner Darkly, and is also in the opening scene of the movie with the same title.
• A character in the movie Oldboy suffers a one-time attack of delusional parasitosis.
• A secondary character in the movie Hellraiser II also suffers from severe chronical delusional parasitosis.
• The lead character in John Irving's The Fourth Hand reports formication on the stump of his amputated left hand.
• X-files season 3, episode "War of the Coprophages," a young man dies after what Dana Scully describes as "Ekbom's Syndrome."
• In the video game Indigo Prophecy, the main character, Lucas Kane, suffers multiple accounts of Delusional parasitosis.
• In the Pink Floyd video "The Wall," the protagonist has a heroin overdose in the "Comfortably Numb" scene, and, after being injected with an antidote by paramedics, feels his flesh crawling with worms or snakes (a form of formication).
• The 2007 horror film Bug directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), is focused on people who have the symptoms of delusional parasitosis.

• Amphetamine psychosis
• Delusion
• Delusional disorder
• Morgellons
• Parasite
• Psychosis

• Ekbom K, Yorston G, Miesch M, Pleasance S, Rubbert S (2003). "The pre-senile delusion of infestation.". Hist Psychiatry 14 (54 Pt 2): 229-56. PMID 14521159. 
• Delusory Parasitosis Nancy C. Hinkle, American Entomologist, vol 46, number 1.

1. ^ The Bohart Museum of Entomology Human Skin Parasites & Delusional Parasitosis
2. ^ synd/2338 at Who Named It