Morgellons

Morgellons (/mɔː(ɹ)ˈdʒɛlənz/) is the informal name of a self-diagnosed skin condition in which individuals have sores that they believe contain some kind of fibers. Morgellons is poorly understood but appears to be a form of delusional parasitosis; the sores are the result of compulsive scratching, and the fibers, when analysed, turn out to originate from textiles.

The name was coined in 2002 by Mary Leitao, a mother who rejected the medical diagnosis of her son's delusional parasitosis. She revived it from a letter written by a physician in the mid-1600s. Leitao and others involved in her Morgellons Research Foundation 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. CDC researchers issued the results of their multi-year study in January 2012, indicating that there were no disease organisms present in people with Morgellons and that the fibers found were likely cotton, and concluded that the condition was "similar to more commonly recognized conditions such as delusional infestation".

Morgellons is poorly understood but appears to be a form of delusional parasitosis in which individuals have some form of actual skin condition that they believe contains some kind of fibers.

In 2001, according to Mary Leitao, her then two-year-old son developed sores under his lip and began to complain of "bugs". Leitao says she examined the sores with her son's toy microscope and discovered red, blue, black, and white fibers. She states that she took her son to see at least eight different doctors who were unable to find any disease, allergy, or anything unusual about her son's described symptoms. Fred Heldrich, a Johns Hopkins pediatrician with a reputation "for solving mystery cases", examined Leitao's son. Heldrich found nothing abnormal about the boy's skin, wrote to the referring physician that "Leitao would benefit from a psychiatric evaluation and support", and registered his worry about Leitao's "use" of her son.Psychology Today reports that Leitao last consulted an unnamed Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialist who, after reviewing her son's records refused to see him, suggesting Leitao herself might have "Munchausen's by proxy, a psychiatric syndrome in which a parent pretends a child is sick or makes him sick to get attention from the medical system". According to Leitao, this opinion of a potential psychological disorder was shared by several medical professionals she sought out:

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