DELUSION OF PARASITOSIS
- 1 May 1954
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in JAMA
- Vol. 155 (1) , 15-17
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1954.03690190021006
Abstract
In 1946, Wilson and Miller1reported six cases of the syndrome known as acarophobia that they had seen. Patients afflicted with it suffer from the delusion that they are parasitized by insects. Wilson and Miller suggested that the disease be called "delusion of parasitosis," because "acarophobia" implies only fear of acarids, whereas these patients describe their fictional parasites under many forms from insect to worm, often ascribing bizarre habits to them. Wilson and Miller felt at that time that the delusion was always paranoid, and they classified it as a symptom of four types of mental disorder: (1) toxic psychosis; (2) paranoid type of dementia praecox; (3) involutional melancholia; and (4) paranoia and paranoid states in arteriosclerosis, syphilis, alcoholism, and senility. In November, 1952, Wilson2reported 16 cases of the disorder that he had seen in the past seven years, as well as citing 18 others from hisKeywords
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