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Delusional Parasitosis
Author(s) -
Hayashi Takuji
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
psychogeriatrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.647
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1479-8301
pISSN - 1346-3500
DOI - 10.1111/j.1479-8301.2002.tb00028.x
Subject(s) - psychopathology , psychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , delusion , delusional disorder , psychiatry , psychosis , clinical psychology , perception , neuroscience
In order to examine the clinical characteristics of delusional parasitosis in a large sample, we previously analyzed 102 cases reported in Japan. In this article, these results are shown briefly, and psychopathological symptoms and nosological classifications are discussed. In our study, 53 cases were classified in to pure type excluding endogenous psychoses, induced psychosis and somatically based psychoses. Two thirds of the pure type cases had visual experiences. These cases involved both hallucinatory and delusional factors, and symptoms considered delusional perception or bodily hallucinations “being made” by parasites were included in these experiences. Although these symptoms are thought to be specific to schizophrenia, some biological findings were often present. Furthermore, the facts concerning sex difference, age at onset, and no personality changes resembled late‐onset paraphrenia, that is, a type of atypical psychoses. Therefore, both psychopathological and biological studies should be carried out continuously from now on.