The eponymous Ekboms disease was changed to "delusions of parasitosis" in 1946 in the English literature, when researchers J Wilson and H Miller described a series of cases, and to "delusional infestation" in 2009. The most common name since 2015 has been "delusional parasitosis".Ekboms original was translated to English in 2003; the authors hypothesized that James Harrington (1611–1677) may have been the "first recorded person to suffer from such delusions when he began to imagine that his sweat turned to flies, and sometimes to bees and other insects." Morgellons
Mary Leitao, the founder of the Morgellons Research Foundation, coined the name Morgellons in 2002, reviving it from a letter written by a physician in the mid-1600s. Leitao and others involved in her foundation (who self-identified as having Morgellons) successfully lobbied members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate the condition in 2006. The CDC published the results of its multi-year study in January 2012. The study found no underlying infectious condition and few disease organisms were present in people with Morgellons; the fibers found were likely cotton, and the condition was "similar to more commonly recognized conditions such as delusional infestation".An active online community has supported the notion that Morgellons is an infectious disease, and propose an association with Lyme disease. Publications "largely from a single group of investigators" describe findings of spirochetes, keratin and collagen in skin samples of a small number of individuals; these findings are contradicted by the much larger studies conducted by the CDC.
The name delusional parasitosis has been the most common name since 2015, but the condition has also been called delusional infestation, delusory parasitosis, delusional ectoparasitosis, psychogenic parasitosis, Ekbom syndrome, dermatophobia, parasitophobia, formication and "cocaine bugs".Morgellons is a form of delusional parasitosis in which people have painful skin sensations that they believe contain fibers of various kinds; its presentation is very similar to other delusional infestations, but people with this self-diagnosed condition also believe that strings or fibers are present in their skin lesions.Delusory cleptoparasitosis is a form of delusion of parasitosis where the person believes the infestation is in their dwelling, rather than on or in their body. Signs and symptoms
People with delusional parasitosis believe that "parasites, worms, mites, bacteria, fungus" or some other living organism has infected them, and reasoning or logic will not dissuade them from this belief. Details vary among those who have the condition, though it typically manifests as a crawling and pin-pricking sensation that is most commonly described as involving perceived parasites crawling upon or burrowing into the skin, sometimes accompanied by an actual physical sensation (known as formication).