For those who have never heard of it, Morgellon's Disease is a supposed condition where microscopic parasites live in the skin that cause the need for constant itching. There is a condition called Delusional Parasitosis, or the irrational belief that you have parasites living in you, that produces the exact same symptons, but the Morgellon advocates insist they're actually two distinct issues. A number of "experts" (whom you can read about in the link) have made part or all of their career in working with Morgellon's.
Anyway, it turns out it is easy to test for parasitic infections, and that's exactly what some researchers did (From Scienceblogs.com
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/05/still_more_evidence_that_morgellons_dise.php#more ) :
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Basically, out of the 80 cases of patients who underwent skin biopsy, Hylwa et al found not a single patient had objective evidence of parasite infestation on skin biopsy, although 61% did reveal dermatitis, including 33 cases of chronic dermatitis, 10 cases of subacute, and 6 cases of lichen simplex chronicus. This last diagnosis is a thickening of the skin with scaling that arises secondary to repetitive rubbing or scratching. In actuality, I'm rather surprised that only 60% of biopsies showed this result; I would have expected it to be higher. I am not surprised that the skin biopsies were in essence nondiagnostic. A number of patients had skin cultures. These, too, were all nondiagnostic, being either negative or yielding common contaminating organisms that couldn't possibly account for the patients' symptoms.
Also not unexpected are the results of examinations of patient-provided specimens. These were examined by dermatologists, pathologists, tropical medicine specialists, internal medicine doctors, psychiatry, or infectious disease physicians like Dr. Crislip. Most commonly, they were found to be skin flakes or serum crust, hair, or textile fibers. There were a couple of insects found among the specimens. One of them was interesting in that it was an actual parasite, specifically a pubic louse, but physical examination showed no evidence of infestation. Another patient brought in a tick, but the clinical judgment of the practitioners was that the tick could not account for the patient's symptoms. The bottom line is that none of the patient-provided specimens resulted in any useful information other than that the patient did not have parasites. Consistent with the scientific literature on Morgellons disease, they were nothing consistent with a diagnosis of parasite infestation.
The authors point out that this is to the best of their knowledge the first study that addressed the histological analysis of skin biopsies and patient-provided specimens in a relatively large number of patients. They also note, as you would expect, that this is a retrospective study, and thus prone to all the shortcomings of retrospective studies, including the potential for incomplete information and bias. One aspect that the investigators mention that isn't really a bug (if you'll excuse the term) but a feature is that the patients had "disparate characteristics, with an array of presentations." That's pretty much the definition of Morgellons; it consists of an array of nonspecific symptoms that focus around the belief that something has infested the skin, be it parasites or some sort of inanimate contaminants, and disparate presentations would be expected. Be that as it may, the authors ended up concluding that examination of patient-provided specimens and skin biopsies showed no evidence of infestation, although they did frequently show evidence of dermatitis. Unfortunately, this is a nonspecific finding; it's also difficult to figure out whether the dermatitis is a cause of the sensation of infestation or occurs as a result of it and the scratching and rubbing that such patients engage in.
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One thing that is sure. The promotion of Morgellons disease as a distinct disease, primarily by means of Internet-fueled advocacy and old-fashioned conspiracy mongering. What these patients need is the application of science and science-based medicine to their problem, not the various quack nostrums sold to them by practitioners who are either unscrupulous or themselves share the delusion. This study adds to our knowledge by providing yet more evidence that there is rarely, if ever, a documented parasitic infestation in these patients.
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