Delusional Infestation

Abstract

The patient who develops the delusional conviction that he/she is infested with small organisms, such as mites or insects, has been recognised in the medical literature for over a century. A wide range of descriptive terms — ‘dermatophobia’ ‘acarophobia’, ‘parasitophobia’ and ‘entomophobia’ (Table 1) have been applied to this symptom. Such terminology is now inappropriate but it has continued to be used until relatively recently: Pope (1970), for example, defined parasitophobia as “a delusional state in which there are sensations of infestation of the skin by insects”.