Morgellons Disease Support Group

Morgellons or Morgellons disease is a controversial name for an alleged polysymptomatic syndrome characterized by patients finding fibers on their skin, which they believe are related to other symptoms, including intense itching, skin lesions, as well as a wide range of other chronic symptoms. These symptoms are occasionally accompanied by the belief in an infestation by some unknown arthropod or parasite. The term Morgellons is not in accepted use by the medical community and the syndrome is widely held by the medical community to be a type of delusional parasitosis. There is no agreed-upon physical cause, etiology, diagnostic criteria or proven treatment. Pressure from patients, including doctors and nurses who claim to have a host of difficult symptoms, resulted in a June 2006 statement from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it had begun organizing a committee for the purpose of investigating Morgellons to determine whether it exists.

The symptoms are frequently characterized as rashes or non-healing skin lesions, associated with unusual structures on or under the skin that look like granules and filaments, and in particular a burning or itching sensation as if small parasites are crawling on or under the skin.

According to the Morgellons Research Foundation, most sufferers test positive for Lyme disease (borreliosis).

Some sufferers complain of seeing insects flying in and out of their skin (considered by some to be a possible secondary infection in existing lesions of unknown cause), while others say they have filaments or fibers growing out of their skin. Some of these fibers are microscopic, while others are so large that they can be seen growing with the naked eye. The fibers range in color, some being white, blue, black or red, and are often dismissed by doctors as lint. It is also noted that widespread reports of skin fibers only date back to the time they were described at a Morgellons website. [1]

Sufferers often complain of fatigue, depression, and cognitive difficulty that may impair work performance.

The Morgellons Research Foundation states that the "troubling sensations and accompanying physical structures" are the most consistent symptoms.

Presentations of Morgellons are frequently diagnosed as delusional parasitosis. The symptoms of delusional parasitosis are very similar to those presented by a Morgellons sufferer who rejects conventional diagnosis of their symptoms, or who presents a belief in the existence of an organism that cannot be observed except by the patient. There is no agreed upon differential diagnosis since Morgellons is not an accepted medical condition.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are launching a study of Morgellons disease: "We're going into this with an open mind," said Dan Rutz, spokesman for the CDC Morgellons task force that first met in June 2006.