Morgellons discounted as psychological
A photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control shows a case-patient with skin lesions, left, and a close-up of one of the lesions with mysterious blue fibers sprouting from the skin, published as part of a CDC study on Morgellons. Credit: AP
ATLANTA -- Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on you, that you have oozing sores, and fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie?
Several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms. Many were in California, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked for a scientific study.
In 2008, federal officials began to study people who said they had this freakish condition called Morgel-lons. Results of the $600,000 study, released yesterday, conclude they exist only in the patients' minds.
"We found no infectious cause," said Mark Eberhard of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study appears in PLoS One, a Public Library of Science journal.
Sufferers described symptoms including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin. Researchers concluded most skin lesions were from scratching. In 2002, the syndrome was named Morgellons, from a 1674 paper describing similar symptoms. -- AP
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