Hello friends, and welcome back to Arthro-Pod! Today's episode is a look at a phenomenon many entomologists will encounter, even if they aren't ready to, known as delusory parasitosis. Also referred to as delusions of infestation and Ekbom's syndrome, this situation involves a person believing that their body and home are infested with some sort of biting or stinging pest, despite there being no evidence that is true. We're all predisposed to interpret certain signals as being caused by an insect or mite trying to crawl on us or bite us and unfortunately, sometimes this can further manifest as delusory parasitosis. Sufferers are often desperate for help and entomologists are often helpless to provide assistance. Today we wanted to outline some of the background of delusory parasitosis and talk about how entomologists can help, while also protecting themselves. 

Show Notes

Hinkle, N.C. 2000. Delusory parasitosis. American Entomologist

https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/46/1/17/2389588

Hinkle, N.C. 2010. Ekbom Syndrome: the challenge of “invisible

Hinkle, N.C. 2011. Ekbom Syndrome: a delusional condition of “bugs

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21344286/

Szepietowski, J.C., Salomon, J., Hrehorów, E., Pacan, P.,

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17373971/

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