Morgellons syndrome: symptoms, treatment and theories explaining it

This strange condition is so mysterious that it has even given rise to conspiracy theories.

In 2001, Mary Leitao, a biologist and mother of a 7-year-old boy. She discovered that her son had unique sores on his skin in which strange fibers of unknown origin could be seen. After a tireless search for diagnoses and unresolved answers, she coined the condition Morgellons syndrome.

Morgellons syndrome is a mysterious and highly controversial disease, for which even today there is still no cure.It is a mysterious and very controversial disease, for which no answers have yet been found by the entire scientific community, and around which all kinds of scientific and conspiracy theories are circulating.

• The 16 most common mental disorders".

What is Morgellons Syndrome?

Morgellons syndrome or Morgellons disease is a strange condition.The name was coined relatively recently, in which the affected person suffers a series of delusions in which he/she believes to be contaminated by infectious pathogenic elements. These elements may be insects, parasites or a series of foreign fibers that they claim to have under their skin.

These delusions may be reinforced by the fact that, in certain cases, a number of foreign fibers present in the skin have been observed. a number of foreign fibers present in the skin lesions that the person causes him/herself..

Self-injury is common in Morgellons patients, who manifest a constant obsession with scratching or even nibbling their skin with the intention of relieving the tingling or itching sensations they report feeling.

Morgellons syndrome has turned out to be a disease involved in controversies and discussions within the medical and scientific community. The reason is that part of this community distinguishes it as a new disease with its own symptoms, while others consider it a new type of manifestation of an already known disorder, dermatozoan parasitic delirium. others consider it a new type of manifestation of an already known disorder, the dermatozoan parasitic delirium..

The mystery and controversy surrounding Morgellons syndrome is such that conspiracy theories have even been established around it, which describe it as a disease caused by governments or companies themselves through the use of nanotechnology. Which, according to them, would explain the appearance of the fibers under the skin and the constant tingling.

Symptoms and diagnosis

Since Morgellons syndrome is not yet accepted as a definite disease, there is no record of its symptomatology, nor have guidelines been drawn up on how to diagnose it. guidelines for an accepted differential diagnosis of Morgellons syndrome have not been developed. accepted differential diagnosis of the disease.

According to the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF), the list of symptoms may include:

• Tingling sensation, constant itching or stinging of the skin that is irritating to the person.
• Skin rashes and wounds that do not heal properly. correctly.
• Appearance of a kind of fibers or strands, of unknown cause, on the skin that may also appear underneath the skin or in skin lesions.
• Extreme tiredness.
• Cognitive deficits such as lack of concentration or memory loss.

Symptoms associated with chronic fatigue syndrome, symptoms of depression or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have also been reported in a large number of patients affected by this rare disorder.

Possible causes of the syndrome

Given the great disagreement and the little research that exists on Morgellons syndrome, a number of hypotheses and theories have been established about its origin. Some of them are based on possible skin diseases, while others are based on the effect that certain bacteria or toxins have on people.

1. Dermatozoal parasitic delirium and other neurological disorders

As mentioned above, part of the scientific community, including dermatologists and psychiatrists, consider Morgellons syndrome to be a new version of the well-known dermatozoal parasitic delirium, also known as infestation delirium. According to the psychiatric diagnostic manuals, these disorders are included in the category of "infestation delirium". are included in the category "delusional disorders without specification"..

Likewise, the scientific community affirms that people suffering from Morgellons syndrome are characterized by manifesting a symptomatology very similar to that of dermatozoan parasitic delirium, which is why most of them are diagnosed as such.

This parasitic delirium stands out for instilling, in the people who suffer it, the delusional belief that they are infested by all kinds of bacteria or parasitic agents, which cause a tingling and itching sensation under the skin..

Patients with this disorder may develop self-injurious or self-mutilating behaviors, which they carry out in order to "tear off" or eliminate these parasites from their body.. Due to this obsession, patients increasingly pick at their wounds, thus making wound healing impossible.

In certain cases of parasitic delirium, the cause of the delirium is found in certain allergies, cutaneous carcinomas, herpes zoster or even in some women in the menopausal stage. In which the cutaneous sensations are real, but the attribution that the subjects give to them is irrational.

2. Cutaneous affections

Other hypotheses by which it is tried to find the cause to the Morgellons points out that the base of this alteration is in certain skin disorders such as allergic dermatitis, contact dermatitis or contact dermatitis.contact dermatitis or scabies, also known as scabies.

As in the previous point, the person feels a real itching in the skin, but maintains the delusional belief that it is not a skin disease but that it is infected by parasites.

3. Bacterial hypothesis

In a research published in 2006 in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, it was stated that the Morgellons disease could be linked to an undefined infectious process.. They also testified that the same Lyme disease-causing bacteria had been found in many of the patients affected by Morgellons syndrome.

The following year, the same researchers claimed that the fibers found in the skin lesions of the patients contained cellulose, while a more detailed analysis of these fibers revealed the appearance of a bacterium known as Agrobacterium. This pathogen is native to the plant world, and is known to originate a series of cellulose fibers in the plants it infects. If this theory is true, Morgellons syndrome would be the first case in which a bacterium from the plant world affects humans.

Treatment

In most cases Morgellons syndrome shares the same treatment as parasitic delirium, as many professionals consider it as such.

After a medical examination to rule out organic causes, a series of typical antipsychotic drugs, such as olanzapinesuch as olanzapine and risperidone.

Since many of the patients reject the diagnosis of a psychotic disorder, they oppose psychiatric treatment. Therefore, based on the theories of infectious agents and bacteria, many patients are treated with Antibiotic or antiparasitic medication, which would act on the patients through placebo effect.