r/todayilearned • u/1998199888 • 2d ago

TIL about Delusional parasitosis, sometimes referred to as phantom infestation, is a psychological disorder in which an individual mistakenly believes their body is overrun by living or inanimate entities. Typical examples of these perceived invaders include bugs, worms, or microbes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_parasitosis
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u/Cantras 2d ago

There's an "ask a doctor" syndicated column, Dr. Roach, where people, overwhelmingly old people, write in dear-abby style with their medical details and a "do I need a second opinion" or "is there a better option than this drug" or "why this and this"...

And someone wrote in telling him she was desperate, nobody would believe her about the parasites, she's not on drugs but she'd been to so many doctors and they all said she was crazy, she'd tried ivermectin and various poisons trying to get them out, please help.

Dr Roach, and I'm imagining his writing like he's speaking in a very calm and patient tone, recommended a specific antipsychotic and clarified that he wasn't saying she was crazy: But some things are prescribed off-label for other things, such as a lot of anti-anxiety meds being prescribed for chronic pain and vice-versa, and this particular drug was also good for recalcitrant parasitic infections.

And I thought that was kindof sweet? kind? trying to meet her where she was at.

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u/devo197979 2d ago

That's such a kind way to deal with that. He's meeting her where she is without making her feel like "the crazy old lady" and still trying to solve her medical problem.

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u/fghjconner 2d ago

On the flip side, he's lying to her and taking away her ability to make an informed decision about her medication. In this case it absolutely works out for the best, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

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u/palepuss 2d ago

You cannot have a reality-based conversation with people in active psychosis. It's simply not possible.

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u/homeboy14763 1d ago

Not true. Have been actively psychotic and can still have reality based conversations. It doesn't take long for it to turn into delusions but what matters is as long as it doesn't get vocally expressed, it's fine. Conversations are possible though. I still actively worked when I was psychotic with no problems. Just people wondering what changed so drastically and being stand offish because I was being stand offish.

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u/palepuss 20h ago

You cannot have reality-based conversation around the psychosis. I actually read that a minority of people seems to be able to realize they're having an episode, it seems to be correlated with intelligence, so nothing you cannot manipulate with will or patience or whatever.

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u/fghjconner 2d ago

Sure, and there are (or should be) procedures in place to officially diagnose those issues and override a patient's consent in such instances. I don't feel that a newspaper columnist should be unilaterally making that decision though.

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u/VenturaDreams 2d ago

The person also asked for their help...so there's that.

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u/tragiktimes 1d ago edited 1d ago

On a different note, I don't think dealing with people who tend to have conspiritorial distrust as a symptom by forcing them to comply with orders made by an entirely external body isn't going to go over too well.

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u/jellymanisme 2d ago

He didn't lie.

He said they were antipsychotics. I'm pretty sure what he said was they're also commonly used to calm down all nervous activities, especially in the skin, and that he wasn't saying what she was feeling wasn't real, but that the feelings could be caused by stressed/overactive neurons, as well.

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u/fghjconner 2d ago

If that's the case, I have a lot less of a problem with it. OP said he claimed it was cure for parasitic infections which I assume is untrue.

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u/TomatoCo 2d ago

If it makes all the symptoms go away is it not a cure?

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u/KrabbyMccrab 2d ago

How do you logic someone out of a delusion? Ignoring someone in need is worse imo

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u/isawabighoot 2d ago

Nah it's morally 100% absolutely objectively correct to trick mentally ill into treatment for their sake.

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u/BarQuiet6338 2d ago

Not really it goes against professional ethics as a clinician. Part of helping someone improve their mental state is building trust and rapport with them, and lying to a patient destroys that trust. Also, for treatment to be effective, the person needs to keep taking the medication everyday if you lie about what the medication does, the person can always look it up when they see it doesn't do what you told them they will simply stop taking it. People with mental illness have long been treated without their consent or knowledge this was wrong and harmful, although there are cases of severe mental illness that require involuntary care even in this case the person has the right to know what medications or treatment ls are being used and why.

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u/mrpoopsocks 2d ago

Morality is not equal to ethical. Morally, I agree with you, ethically society would like a word, until it's directly their problem and then they'll see it the same way, or not, people be like that sometimes.

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u/isawabighoot 2d ago

What? I don't know what you mean, I wouldn't worry about semantics just do what's right

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u/M0rph33l 2d ago

How can you take away her ability to make an informed decision about her medicine when she didn't have the ability to in the first place?

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u/BarQuiet6338 7h ago

Wild that you got downvoted for a very reasonable take I actually work in mental health we don't lie to people to get them to take medication becuase it is unethical and also would also break the trust the patient has in us making futher treatment more difficult. Also we want the person to keep taking the medication once thier discharged and if we lie about what it does they probably won't keep.doing that. Mentally ill people can still google, and people who are psychotic usually remain surprisingly savvy in some regards, they will just google what the medication does and stop taking it if you lie to them.