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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Delusional parasitosis in the elderly: a review and report of six cases from Northern Finland | | Author(s) | Pirkko Räsänen, Kari Erkonen, Ulrica Isaksson |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 9, no 4, December 1997 |
| Pages | pp 459-464 |
| Keywords | Delusion ; Perception disorders ; Older women ; Finland. |
| Annotation | A patient with delusional parasitosis has a strong conviction of being infested with parasites; for example, lice or worms. Such a patient is not satisfied with assurances or test results that no parasites are present, but is so convinced that he or she will go as far as to bring the parasites in "matchboxes" to the physician. Subjectively worried, the patient may try to pick the parasites out of the skin, causing cutaneous lesions and even ulcerations. The condition is classified as a delusional.paranoid disorder, somatic type according to DSM-III-R. Not much is known epidemiologically of this rare disorder, which usually affects older women who are isolated socially. In this article six female cases from Finland are presented, showing that a typical patient is an older woman who has suffered losses or is socially isolated. These patients lack deeper psychiatric insight into their problem, so they are mostly in the care of non-psychiatric physicians. Treatment with a low dose of high-potency neuroleptics combined sometimes with antidepressants appears to be effective. The importance of reducing social isolation is highlighted. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980518413 A |
| Classmark | EDD: EE: BD: 76L |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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