Morgellons disease is not caused by mysterious fibers embedded under the skin. In other news, crack bugs are not caused by bugs.
The CDC is trying very hard to be diplomatic about the results of its new $600,000 study of people with the controversial diagnosis of Mogellons disease, a skin condition where patients are convinced there is something under their skin but doctors can find no foreign bodies or parasites:
“We believe that these people have something and their quality of life [has] in some instances been very seriously impacted,” says Mark Eberhard, the CDC’s director of the division of parasitic diseases and malaria and a study author. “We’re not saying this is made up. There could be a constellation of factors.”
Much of the fascination with the condition has stemmed from reports that these individuals have fibers or material coming out from their skin. They also have skin lesions and often describe itching or stinging sensations.
[…]
Middle-aged, Caucasian women were most likely to be affected, the data showed. There were high rates of drug use and additional conditions like chronic fatigue in the group, though researchers cautioned it was impossible to figure out the interplay of cause and effect of any of these conditions.
Patients who are suffering from these symptoms should seek medical care and start with a good physical exam, said Eberhard. “They should have an open mind on both sides of the equation and not jump to conclusions. There shouldn’t be a lot of time spent on infectious causes or [on whether] the fibers are at the heart of the matter.” [WSJ]
The subjects in the 115-patient study got skin biopsies. Patients were eligible for the study if they reported reported “fibers, threads, specks, dots, fuzzballs, granules or other forms of solid material coming out of his/her skin” and either a skin lesion or an unpleasant skin sensation. Only about 40% of patients had irritated skin at all, which seems to cast doubt on the foreign body hypothesis.
Some of the samples contained fibers, but these were ordinary fragments of textiles and household debris.
“These sores appear often to be the result of people picking at themselves, as they would if they had a chronic irritation that couldn’t be resolved any other way,” CDC spokesman Daniel Rutz told ABC News. If the skin is broken, fibers can become encrusted in healing wounds. (If you’ve ever had road rash, you can relate.)
Science and medicine blogger Orac has an excellent discussion of the study and the overwhelming body of evidence that Morgellons patients are not infested with some mysterious parasite or spontaneously-generated fiber that medical science has failed to identify.
Despite the CDC’s attempt to break the news gently, the Mogellons community is not happy. Yahoo blogger Sherry Tomfield called the study “an insult to sufferers.”
None of this is to minimize the suffering of these patients. They are really uncomfortable, they are not making it up.
However, it’s a sad commentary on our society that some people would rather believe that they have bugs under their skin, contrary to all available evidence, than to entertain the notion that they might have a psychiatric or neurological problem.
I understand the Morgellons community’s desire to be taken seriously, but equating seriousness with somatic illness is a slap in the face to people with psychiatric disorders Major depressive disorder and schizophrenia are just as “real” as chickenpox. Nobody thinks that these illnesses are less serious just because they involve the brain.
It’s hard to feel sorry for people who are clamouring for a somatic diagnosis against all evidence because they’re trying to hold onto the privilege of being sick rather than “crazy.” They’re desperate for validation of their illness without the stigma of a psych diagnosis. Ironically, frantic denial of any “taint” of mental illness helps keep the stigma alive.
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