Mick West

Morgellons Money

In August 2006, Mary Leitao, the inventor of the Morgellons appellation and founder of the Morgellons Research Foundation, came under some scrutiny for lack of accounting for monies donated to the MRF. She had this to say:

“It has been the most bizarre situation,” Ms. Leitao said in an interview. “We’re talking little, tiny chunks of money. I will tell you, the year 2004, there were $318 worth of donations. And $100 of those came from me. I donated a check to my own foundation to jump-start us.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06226/713319-85.stm

Yet, three month’s earlier, she had personally signed the 990 tax form for the year 2005, which listed donations of $17,165 and expenses of $2,819 and $1,715 on a new computer listed as an asset.

Why then did Leitao attempt to characterize the money involved as “tiny chunks”, when clearly thousands of dollars are involved?

The 990 form is available here:
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2005/020/723/2005-020723970-02561e28-Z.pdf
(Free registration required)

Apparently $10,000 was donated by one person, who was then not able to get any information as to where the money went.
http://morgellonsgroup.proboards23.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1157702900

October 30, 2006 by Mick West MRF

Morgellons and Dermatologists

Three interesting articles on Morgellons in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology this month, the first two are free:

Morgellons disease: A rapport-enhancing term for delusions of parasitosis, Murase, Wu and Koo.
http://www.eblue.org/article/PIIS0190962206012175/fulltext

Morgellons Disease? Waddell and Burke
http://www.eblue.org/article/PIIS0190962206012217/fulltext

And one you’d have to pay for:

The Challenge of Morgellons disease, Koblenzer
http://www.eblue.org/article/PIIS0190962206012187/fulltext

Here’s an excerpt of the Koblenzer article:

Today, the informed dermatologist may be anywhere from doctor number five to number ten or more in this patient’s search for relief, and the patient will, in the interim, have raised both heaven and hell in a frantic attempt to solve the problem that has literally taken over his or her life. Today, the internet further complicates an already difficult situation, as we see in the two letters in this Journal, as our patients share every facet of their condition, every theory as to cause, and every attempt at relief, however far-fetched, with their fellow sufferers.

This sharing, and a tremendous amount of suffering, have given rise to the formation of “The Morgellons Research Foundation,” an organization devoted to “researching an emerging infectious disease,” with a medical board that boasts five MDs and an RN. Interestingly, none are dermatologists. An internet search for “bugs in the skin” will bring one to the Foundation’s Web site, and as Murase et al point out, the information therein may be very misleading to someone who suffers from delusions of parasitosis. One reads of cellulose fibers, fibers with “autofluorescence,” fuzz balls, specks, granules, strongyloides stercoralis, cryptococcus neoformans, “alternative cellular energy pigments,” and various types of bacteria for which potent antibiotics are prescribed, in the ever broadening spectrum of possible “pathogens.” In no case does one read of positive confirmatory tests, though many tests are undertaken. As Murase et al note, one also reads of numerous associated medical and psychiatric disorders that are attributed to, rather than co-existent with, or causative of the distressing symptoms. Frustration is extreme and suicidality is not unknown.

Clearly, as more and more of our patients discover this site, there will be an ever greater waste of valuable time and resources on fruitless research into fibers, fluffs, irrelevant bacteria, and innocuous worms and insects. It behooves us, therefore, as dermatologists, not only to be aware of this phenomenon, but also each to develop an effective way to work with these patients, and so enable the patients to be able to accept one of the medications that we know to be effective. This is a challenge indeed—so often the patient, feeling “brushed off” or not understood, simply does not follow through either with medication or with psychiatric referral.

If one is to succeed in helping these patients, it is important that one acknowledge to the patient that what the patient describes is exactly what that patient is experiencing. One can then empathize, as did Murase et al, with the patient’s pain and discomfort, their anger and frustration with dismissive doctors, and the devastating changes wrought by the condition in the patient’s life, and so develop a therapeutic relationship. With regard to causation, Morgellons disease may be an acceptable appellation, but it may also be that the touted “mysteries” of this disease only prove stimulus for further research by the patient. So, perhaps without going too far into the difference between a disease with a definite cause and a syndrome that may have different ones, it may be reasonable for us to refer to the symptom complex in question as “Morgellans syndrome” rather than disease

Of note: all these doctors are saying they are considering using the term “Morgellons” to refer to conditions involving DOP when talking to people who suffer from DOP and who also think they have Morgellons. They are doing this since it eases communication with the patient.

October 29, 2006 by Mick West Media Science

Whither Morgellons?

“Morgellons” is the name Mary Leitao chose for what she considered to be a mysterious new illness afflicting her son. Doctors told her it was just eczema, and that the fibers she found on his lip were just lint. But she was determined it must be a novel new disease that she personally had discovered, so she set up a foundation to publicise it. Eventually, via the internet, other people join her organization, the list of symptoms constituting “Morgellons” is expanded to include these new people. Eventually the list of symptoms becomes very broad, and encompasses just about any medical condition. Doctors reject “Morgellons”, since the symptoms are explained by other diseases, and are too varied and vague to constitute a working definition of a new disease.

But the “Foundation” continues on its mission of “raising awareness” of “this disease”. With lots of hard work they get some press coverage, then some local TV coverage, and then eventually some major TV coverage. Each time the story is the same. Some patients are presented who are obviously ill. Their doctors have told them Morgellons is not a real disease, and the fibers are just lint or hair. Wymore says it is a real disease. The CDC is investigating. The end.

As you can see here, Morgellons was a short-lived phenomenon. The local media coverage spurred interest which faded away. The CNN story spurred some interested, but was limited by the audience. Finally two huge spikes surround the networks morning shows and the “Primetime” special, then nothing, it tails off to zero after the next two months.

So what’s going on? Was Morgellons just a product of a media desperate for news during the silly season? The MRF supplied them with an interesting sounding story, and they ran with it? Then what happened? Where did Morgellons go?

People are still sick, that’s for sure. People are still going to the doctors with excoriations, and with itching, and with fatigue, and with baggies of fibers. That’s not going to stop. There are a variety of reasons for that, and those reasons are not going away.

But “Morgellons” has gone away. It was a label someone decided to put on a bunch of symptoms without any evidence to indicate that anything unusual was happening, and contrary to the opinions of the entire medical community. A few people publicised it very well for a period of time. The media ran the story, but now they’ve “done that”, and there will be no more stories.

Save the inevitable CDC report on “insufficient evidence”, the inexplicable advocacy of Professor Wymore, and the interminable and sad believer’s theories on Morgellons discussion boards, Morgellons is over.

Morgellons is over, but people are still sick. They are probably more sick now than when the MRF started their media campaign. By popularizing “Morgellons” as an actual disease, it gave validity to those who disagree with their doctors, self diagnosed, and chose inappropriate treatments. Morgellons is over, but the damage is done.

October 11, 2006 by Mick West Lymebusters Media MRF

Doctors & Patients

The problem of Morgellons is primarily one of a stark divide between the perceptions of the doctor on one hand, and the patient on the other.

The doctor sees a varied set of physical and mental symptoms that could be caused by one or more conditions. They see lesions on the patient’s body that often look like the patient has scratched themselves. They also see the patient pointing out things on their body, like lint, hair and specks of dirt, and they hear the patient say these things emerged from their body. They hear the patient insist they have a disease called “Morgellons” that has only recently been discovered.

The patient sees the doctor trying to “explain away” what are, to them, obvious symptoms. The patient thinks they feel the the fibers move, and emerge from their body. The patient is frustrated by the doctor’s suggestion that there might be an emotional component to their symptoms. The patient rejects the doctor’s diagnoses and substitutes their own.

In this post, I’m going to focus on the doctor’s perception of these patients. I feel what these fifteen doctors and professors say here really encapsulates and explains many of the problems, and answers many of the arguments surrounding “Morgellons”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18393-2188371.html

“This is not a mysterious disease,” says Dr Norman Levine, a Professor of Dermatology at the University of Arizona. “If you polled 10,000 dermatologists, everyone would agree with me.” He says he has seen 100 patients suffering from such symptoms, and they responded well to treatment, including a drug called Pimozide, which is used for chronic schizophrenia. According to Dr Levine, they are suffering from a monosymptomatic disorder in which they are absolutely convinced something is in their skin, a delusional parasitosis. He says he has studied the fibres his patients bring in by the bag-load and they are textile in nature.

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060526_morgellons.html

Michael Girardi, a dermatologist at the Yale School of Medicine, had never heard of Morgellons but when its symptoms were described to him, he was reminded of another disorder that is well known to doctors. “They just renamed it,” Girardi told LiveScience. “We just call it delusions of parasitosis.”

“It’s basically when a patient thinks that there’s something coming out of their skin, a material or bug of some sort, when truthfully there’s nothing there,” said Stacy Beaty, a dermatologist at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
In medical schools, physicians learn to watch out for the “matchbox sign” of delusional parasitosis, when patients bring in hair, skin or clothing lint, sometimes in matchboxes, that they claim contain the insects or parasites responsible for their torment. However, when examined, the samples reveal no such thing. The lesions and scratches sometimes seen on patients with delusional parasitosis are usually self-inflicted, Beaty said.
“To rule out any infectious causes and also to put the patient’s mind at ease, a lot of times we’ll do skin biopsies,” Beaty said in a telephone interview. “If we feel that it’ll be helpful, we might also start different anti-psychotic or anti-anxiety medicines.”

In response to rising media coverage about the condition, the Los Angeles Department of Health Services recently issued a statement that said bluntly: “No credible medical or public health association has verified the existence or diagnosis of ‘Morgellons Disease.’ The current description of the disease is vague and covers many conditions.”

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/05/08/70309.php

“In many cases, (delusional parasitosis) is a mono-delusional problem,” Lynch [Dr. Peter Lynch, professor emeritus in dermatology at the University of California, Davis] said. “The patients are normal in every other way. It’s always hard to get such patients to believe it’s a psychological problem. Some patients are very convincing, and I’ve had psychiatrists call me about referrals I’ve made and ask if I’m absolutely sure there’s nothing organic going on here.”

He said in the 40 years he has been practicing medicine he hasn’t seen a delusional parasitosis patient with physical symptoms that can’t be explained. He said while it’s possible some cases may be wrongly diagnosed, it’s unlikely a large segment of patients is suffering from a physical illness.

“You can miss a case and of course that happens,” Lynch said. “But are many being missed? In a word, no.”

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/05/08/70307.php

When told of Dr. Bill Harvey’s successful treatment with antibiotics of Morgellons’ patients in Houston, Dr. Peter Lynch of the University of California, Davis said the “cures” are easily explained by the placebo effect. Patients treated with sugar pills, for example, often get well because they believe they are receiving medicine

Lynch said 80 percent of patients with delusions of parasites respond to psychotropic medication, an indication their illness is mental.

“Anecdotal evidence doesn’t carry much weight,” Lynch said. “There are many anecdotes of alien abductions, but that doesn’t mean they are true. And as for the pictures, you can see pictures of the Loch Ness Monster on the Internet, too.”

“If there were a peer-reviewed study, with 15 or 20 patients who have the same exact thing in their skins, then maybe I’d believe it,” Lynch said. “When fiberglass curtains first came out, many people with skin conditions were diagnosed with delusions of parasitosis (DOP). But studies showed these patients had tiny (fiberglass particles) in their skin.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/02/MNGOJJ6JO51.DTL&hw=Morgellons&sn=001&sc=1000

“There are a huge number of people out there with (delusional parasitosis), and most of them are not getting adequate treatment because they have this fixed belief,” said Dr. Dan Eisen, a UC Davis dermatologist. “It’s probably just a group of patients who haven’t gotten the appropriate treatment, and they’re calling it Morgellons.”

“Dermatologists are afraid to see these patients,” says Dr. Peter Lynch, professor emeritus of dermatology at the University of California, Davis. He says he has examined about 75 people with Morgellons-like symptoms in the past 35 years and believes they suffer from delusional parasitosis–literally, delusions of parasites in the skin. It’s a diagnosis people don’t like. One patient, threatening malpractice, convinced the state medical board to investigate Lynch. Another warned he had a pistol in the glove compartment of his truck, Lynch says. “He told me, ‘I’m going to shoot the next doctor who tells me it’s in my head.'”

Another prominent dermatologist, who insisted on anonymity out of concern for his safety, says he has diagnosed 50 or so Morgellons patients with cutaneous dysaesthesia–a neurological disorder that can result in the sensation of scuttling insects. And the spiny things? “In every case I’ve seen it’s a textile fiber, and it’s on the surface of the skin,” he says. He typically puts a cast over the lesions to prevent further irritation and after four weeks removes it. “Guess what?” he says. “The lesions are healed.”

http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2006-07-20/news/feature_full.html

Part of the problem with a disease like Morgellons, [Tim Jones, an epidemiologist from the Tennessee Department of Health] says, is that its symptoms are both vague and varied. Before public health officials can investigate, there must be a clear definition of the disease. The Morgellons Research Foundation says they have that definition, but there is no one symptom, or even group of symptoms, that defines Morgellons. […]
“Trying to do studies on a group like this becomes virtually impossible because you may have 10 percent of the people who meet a real strict definition and a whole bunch of other people who don’t,” Jones says. “If you go through 10 patients and one is having discolored sweat, another one’s having pieces of spaghetti stick out of his skin and another one’s having, I don’t know, heel pain, it’s really hard to think what would tie these things together”.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06204/707970-85.stm

“They suffer terribly, but it’s psychiatric,” said Dr. Dirk Elston, a dermatologist in the Geisinger Medical System in Danville, Montour County. “The fact that there’s something online to cling to, it’s a difficult obstacle for us.”

“The moment you mention psychiatrists, these patients get extremely angry,” said psychiatrist Alistair Munro, author of “Delusional Disorder.” “They say there’s nothing wrong with their brain. They have all kinds of explanations.”

“I found no evidence of [anything suspicious] in Andrew,” Dr. Heldrich [Dr. Fred Heldrich, a Johns Hopkins pediatrician] wrote to Dr. Frac after the visit. Then he added: “Ms. Leitao would benefit from a psychiatric evaluation and support, whether Andrew has Morgellons disease or not. I hope she will cease to use her son in further exploring this problem.”

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=110940&ran=130308

“People don’t need the Internet as long as they’ve got the media,” said Edward Shorter, a professor of psychiatry and the history of medicine at the University of Toronto. Once the media reports come out about a new possible disease, even if it’s not real, some people see it, “and they say, ‘That’s what I’ve got. That’s my disease,'”

http://www.click2houston.com/health/4246515/detail.html

“I always feel that people should keep an open mind and I think there are scientific experiments, what we call evidence-based medicine, that can prove or disprove that an organism is causing this,” University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston dermatologist Dr. Stephen Tucker said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003152087_illness26.html

“In dermatology, we speak about something called an ‘outside job,’ which is a skin eruption made by the patient himself,” said Dr. Noah Scheinfeld, an assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University in New York and an expert on the psychiatric origins of certain skin disorders. “When you look at the pictures of these Morgellons lesions, they are classic for that.”

http://www.ent.uga.edu/publications/delusory.pdf

Self-excoriation is a common feature of delusory parasitosis, despite the individuals’ protestations that they do not scratch. Scratching may produce papular eruptions. Any repeated skin irritation produces a friction blister. Repeated rubbing of an area often produces a bleb (small blister) which, when ruptured, yields an open sore that may become infected. Once the sore begins oozing plasma and a scab forms, hairs and cloth fibers become entrapped in the sticky fluid. These flecks are dislodged and called mites or insects because they look like they have “antennae” and “legs”. Hair follicles often are pulled out; the follicle accompanied by the associated sebaceous gland looks like a worm. – Nancy C.Hinkle, Professor of Entomology, University of Georgia.

http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic941.htm

Patients pick at areas until they can pull material from the skin. This may be referred to as “pulling a thread from the skin.” – Dr. Noah Scheinfeld,

http://www.rangelmd.com/2006/08/there-are-these-little-fibers-coming.htm

Logically, any credible study of Morgellons should have tried to explain the connection between the fibers and the symptoms. It’s not a good sign that no one has bothered to offer a formal starting theory on Morgellons fibers and that the [Morgellons Research] Foundation criticizes physicians for not looking for signs of Morgellons when they don’t really know what to look for themselves. – Dr. Chris Rangel, MD.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060828/full/nm0906-982a.html

Noah Scheinfeld, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Columbia University, says patients sometimes come in with pieces of their skin mixed with other materials in a box or a piece of Saran Wrap. “Such patients are a challenge to help and to treat,” he says. “They want to be believed above all and tend to be socially isolated.” Scheinfeld says the Internet has helped those with parasitic delusions to band together and reinforce each others’ beliefs.

“There really is no scientific basis at this point to believe that [Morgellons] is real,” says Stephen Stone, president of the American Academy of Dermatology.

September 22, 2006 by Mick West Media Medical Professional

Hystorical Context

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason

Have you seen it before? Or have you seen the same problem in a slightly different form?
– G. Pólya, How to Solve It.

Is Morgellons a real disease? Are over 5000 people affected by a common causative agent that causes fibers to appear in the skin, along with itching, lesions and symptoms that match those of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia?

That seems like a difficult problem to answer. If you can’t immediately answer it, then take the advice of Polya, and ask “have you seen the same problem in a slightly different form?”.

And yes, we have. Right in the question actually, we have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia. Two syndromes with a long list of symptoms, nothing detectably wrong with the patient, and contested causation. Is Morgellons simply CFS with itching and scratching?

But let’s take Polya’s advice and then add in some Santayana. Has the same problem arisen in the past? It sounds like we would need to look at the history of medicine. Have there been cases where thousands of people though they had a specific novel illness, but that illness turned out to be nothing new?

First let me pause for a second to say, again, that I think people are really sick. They have real symptoms, they may have a variety of problems, they need treatments. What is under debate here is if people all have the same illness, and if “Morgellons” is a new disease.

Back to the past. Morgellons is a complex subject, but the prevailing theory is that there is a degree of psychosomatic illnesses mixed in with real illnesses, and greatly compounded by mass hysteria, fed mostly by the media coverage during 2006.

To understand how this might be the case, we need to look at similar events in history. There are a lot of them, and I cannot do justice to them all, but others have done the work for me, so I shall give you pointers, if you are interested.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=110940&ran=130308

“People don’t need the Internet as long as they’ve got the media,” said Edward Shorter, a professor of psychiatry and the history of medicine at the University of Toronto. Once the media reports come out about a new possible disease, even if it’s not real, some people see it, “and they say, ‘That’s what I’ve got. That’s my disease,'” Shorter said.

According to Shorter, mass hysteria has taken many forms:

— UTERUS AILMENT: The word hysteria is derived from Greek, meaning “wandering of the uterus.” In the 19th century, many people thought a malfunctioning uterus led to any number of symptoms, including pain, paralysis or amnesia. Sigmund Freud and other early psychologists considered these symptoms psychological.

— TEETH: At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a vogue for pulling out all of one’s teeth, “on the grounds that you could be suffering from autointoxication, from infected root canals.”

— COLON: Around the time of the first World War, there was a trend of removing much of the large colon “on the grounds that your feces were leaking out of your colon and poisoning the rest of your body.”

http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/21/edward_shorter.html

In the early 1800s, for example, doctors talked about “spinal irritation,” believing that when a certain point along the spine was pressed or hurt, it created peripheral pains and other motor (muscular) system problems. Consequently, doctors increasingly began seeing patients whose problems conveniently fitted the diagnosis. These patients–usually women–complained of temporary blindness, paralysis, and other ills. Some couldn’t walk, others couldn’t move their arms, many remained paralyzed for months in bed. Doctors would come across patients so catatonic that it was impossible to tell whether they were alive. Unable to detect pulses or respiration, doctors found that the only sure sign of death was when the body emitted a “cadaverous smell.”

Some of these patients no doubt had undiagnosed organic diseases. But Shorter convincingly argues that the majority of cases were psychosomatic.

It’s a funny thing: by the early 1900s, these symptoms had virtually disappeared. Medicine had started to shift away from the spine to the brain. Also, the social position of women improved. Whereas Victorian era mores had rendered women immobile–unable to have careers or lives of their own–psychogenic paralyses were, Shorter contends, “a metaphorical way for women to convey their dysphoria.” Once women won greater freedom, these kinds of symptoms became obsolete.

Psychosomatic symptoms didn’t disappear, however — they simply changed with the times. In case after case, from somnabulism to neurasthenia to “Yuppie flu,” we see how medical and cultural trends alternately reinforce and erode particular psychosomatic symptoms. Shorter argues that this is because patients don’t want to be seen as crazy and they therefore unconsciously or semiconsciously exhibit the “right” symptoms.

Hystories, by Elaine Showalter, Columbia University Press, is a good book on the subject:

Mass Hysteria has been around for centuries. In Extraordinary Popular delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), Charles Mackay, a London journalist, described what he called “moral epidemics,” including tulipomania and witchcraft. One hundred fifty years later, Mackay’s book still has relevance. As Simon Wessely, a senior lecturer in pyschological medicine at Kings College School of Medicine in London, explains, “All that has changed is the precise nature for false explanation. In previous times mass hysteria would be blamed on demons, spiritism and diabolic possessions. Nowadays we are oppressed by equally invisible gases, viruses and toxins“

A quote within the above mentioned Extraordinary Popular delusions and the Madness of Crowds is of twisted relevance. Back in the late 1700s, the use of microscopes was causing problems:

Oh that I had remained in that happy state of ignorance wherein you first found me! Yet will I confess that, as my knowledge increased, so did my pleasure, until I beheld the last wonders of the microscope; from that moment I have been tormented by doubt and perplexed by mystery: my mind, overwhelmed by chaotic confusion, knows not where to rest, nor how to extricate itself from such a maze. I am miserable, and must continue to be so, until I enter on another stage of existence.

Does that remind you of anyone?

Morgellons is nothing new. Similar diseases, plagues and demonic possessions have sprung up and spread through the populace since the start of human history. If it follows the path of history, Morgellons will fade away (like Epstein-Barr flavored CFS), and be replaced by something new. You can’t stop it, but we can at least be aware that these things happen, and we can try to mitigate their ill effects by providing some perspective.

September 14, 2006 by Mick West Media Science

Controversial Diseases

Morgellons is sometimes described as a “Controversial Disease”. I was wondering what other controversial diseases there are, so I did a little Googling to find a few.

I was quite surprised when something that turned up was chronic Whiplash – yes, that bad neck you get when involved in a car accident, now an $18 billion industry. Surprisingly some studies show that demolition derby drivers do not ever suffer from chronic whiplash. In Lithuania (where car insurance is rare) chronic whiplash is unknown. Chiropractors dispute these findings.

Some symptoms of whiplash: headache, dizziness, abnormal sensations such as burning or prickling (paresthesias), or shoulder or back pain. In addition, some people experience cognitive, somatic, or psychological conditions such as memory loss, concentration impairment, nervousness/irritability, sleep disturbances, fatigue, or depression.

Also controversial: Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. Factors of compensation and legalities play a factor here too:

“Whatever its physiologic, toxic or psychiatric origins are, MCS has become the focus for great efforts to support a particular set of beliefs about its mechanism and manifestations. MCS is discussed in an array of patient support groups and clinics, by clinicians, hotlines and lawyers, in journals and other media, and on World Wide Web sites. It has become the subject of disability laws and settlements”

Some Symptoms of MCS: Headache, Fatigue, Dizziness, Nausea, Irritability, Confusion, Difficulty concentrating, Memory problems, Muscle pain and/or stiffness, Skin rash or hives, Mood changes.

Here’s another: premenstrual dysphoric disorder, (PMMD), which was listed as treatable by Prozac, but later, in Europe, described as “an invented illness and a strong example of the medicalisation of ordinary life.”. There is some suggestion that PMDD has been “marketed” by drug companies. Again, money plays a strong role in defining the disease.

Some PMMD Symtoms: irritability, nervousness, difficulty in concentrating, lethargy, depression, severe fatigue, confusion, paranoia, emotional hypersensitivity, crying spells, moodiness, sleep disturbances, acne, neurodermatitis (skin inflammation with itching), other skin disorders, including cold sores, numbness, prickling, tingling, or heightened sensitivity of arms and/or legs, and a whole load more.

I think the situation is too complex to draw any simple parallels between these kinds of conditions and “Morgellons”, but there are obvious aspects here and there – notably the smorgasboard of symptoms. Read the articles above. It’s fascinating stuff.

September 7, 2006 by Mick West Science

Occam’s Menopause

How can thousands of people across the country all have the same symptoms? This is a question I am often asked regarding Morgellons, and my response has generally been that they don’t, the symptoms are varied, and where the symptoms are similar, there are many known causes for those symptoms.

In my previous article, “Occam’s Hot Tub“, I posited a possible series of events that might lead to someone thinking they had Morgellons, when in reality they had hot tub folliculitus, neurotic excoriations and fiberglass splinters.

But let’s consider a much more common possible cause, one that could account for a very large percentage of cases. Consider if the symptoms of menopause match the symptoms of Morgellons.

First, remember who these thousands of people are. They are the people who filled in an internet form, first at the MRF, and now at OSU. The form is really lacking in epidemiologically useful questions, but does ask which of the following 12 Morgellons symptoms you have:

Lesions or sores
Fibers or filaments on skin
Granules or specks on the skin
Itching or stinging
Hair loss
Joint pain
Fatigue
Biting or crawling feeling on the skin
Mood disorder
Memory or concentration problems
(ex: ‘brainfog’, short term memory loss)
Vision problems
Edema or swelling

Skipping the first three for now (don’t worry, I’ll address them later), let us look at the rest, grouping them as appropiate:

Itching or stinging, Biting or crawling feeling on the skin
http://www.dvmen.org/dv-135.htm
“Formication, the feeling that ants or other insects are crawling on their skin, affects about 20% of women during perimenopause and menopause. Formication can cause a woman to scratch herself raw.”
“many women experience severe itching during perimenopause that is unrelated to formication”
http://www.healthsquare.com/fgwh/wh1ch29.htm
“Some women experience a prickling, itching sensation on the skin, known as formication. It has been called “crawling skin” because it feels as though tiny insects are marching along your body.”
Menopause: A guide for Women and Those who Love them, Berg and Garcia, 1992, p.76
“Skin tingling or a feeling that unseen insect are crawling across your skin is called formication. It is a symptom of menopausal distress. […] 20 percent of menopausal women report the problem”

Joint Pain
http://www.breastcancer.org/cmty_trans_2002_3_21.html
“Symptoms of menopause you may be experiencing include: […] Muscle and joint pain”
“Joint pain is a common complaint in many women and men as we reach middle age.”

Fatigue, Mood disorder, Memory or concentration problems
http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/section18/chapter236/236a.jsp
“Psychologic and emotional symptoms–including fatigue, irritability, insomnia, inability to concentrate, depression, memory loss, headache, anxiety, and nervousness–may be related to estrogen deprivation and the stress of aging and changing roles. Sleep disruption by recurrent hot flushes contributes to fatigue and irritability.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menopause#Symptoms
“mood disturbance, irritability, fatigue, decreased libido, memory loss”

Vision Problems
http://www.healthsquare.com/fgwh/wh1ch29.htm
“Visual capacity, such as the ability to read road signs at night, has been reported to decline by a sample of menopausal women.”
http://www.ejfi.org/family/family-60.htm#menopause
“Changes in visual acuity requiring changes in eyeglass prescriptions or other vision problems.”

Hair Loss
http://www.womentowomen.com/SYMhairlossdryskin.asp
“Approximately one-third of menopausal women report noticeable hair loss (called “alopecia”)”
http://www.power-surge.com/educate/hairloss.htm
“The most common cause of hair loss is low thyroid function, which is common among menopausal women.”

Edema or swelling
http://www.epigee.org/menopause/weight_gain.html
“Water retention and menopause often go hand in hand since water weight and bloating are caused by decreased progesterone levels.”
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Menopause-and-Water-Retention&id=223203
“Water retention is excessive accumulation of fluid in the body. It occurs in women during menopause or perimenopause when they take estrogen replacement hormones.”

So, 9 out of 12 symptoms are common symptoms of menopause. We can easily make it 10 by including lesions, since “Formication can cause a woman to scratch herself raw.”, but also since a “lesion” can be almost any abnormal change involving any tissue or organ. The most common skin lesion is acne:
http://www.acne.org/women_and_acne.html
“women undergoing menopause and post-menopause may also experience hormonal acne”
http://www.menopauseinsight.com/menopause/menopause-acne.aspx
“Menopausal and post-menopausal women experience a dramatic decrease in estrogen levels, and an increase in testosterone. This causes the skin glands to produce more oil than they usually do, and as a result, more acne breakouts occur.”

So all we are left with is fibers and specks on the skin. If you look, you will find them. I have fibers and specks on my skin right now.

A slightly better survey of Morgellons believers can be found at:
http://www.usp-db.com/

In August 2006, this only had 305 respondents, but of those, 76% are women, and 80% are in the age range 35-60 (the age range of menopause onset), with the highest number in the 50-54 range – the average age of menopause onset)

So, all the symptoms of Morgellons on one internet survey are practically identical to the symptoms of menopause, and the other survey indicates that the vast majority of people with Morgellons are women of menopausal age.

Does this mean that all cases of Morgellons are actually menopause? Obviously not, we’ve got a few men there, and several people with highly odd symptoms, and some children. But the correlation is so staggeringly high, that it seems very likely that as many as half of those 5000+ people who say they have symptoms of morgellons actually have symptoms of menopause.

August 25, 2006 by Mick West Science

Nancy Hinkle on Delusory Parasitosis

Most people who strongly believe they have Morgellons will complain that their doctors dismiss them as “DOP”, a common abbreviation for “Delusions Of Parasites”.

The Morgellons activists seek to portray their plight as a struggle of genuinely sick people against an uncaring medical profession that dismisses their symptoms as “all in your head”. Any suggestion of anything like DOP is reviled, and the believers wander from doctor to doctor, seeking those who will look beyond this.

To understand the Morgellons community, you need to understand DOP. One of the worlds leading experts on DOP is Nancy Hinkle, PhD. Hinkle is not a physician, she is an entomologist, so if anyone can find the bugs, it’s going to be her. Back in 2001, before the MRF got off the ground, she had an interview on this subject with the Discovery Channel in Canada.

http://exn.ca/video/?Video=2001030551.asx

If you are interested in Morgellons, I highly recommend you watch this video (it’s only about six minutes long), as it provides a simple overview of DOP, as well as the varied causes, which are mostly physical in nature. She also makes the distinction between those who are simply mistaken, and those who are delusional.

Out of the hundreds of samples that people have sent Dr. Hinkle over the years, NONE had insects in them. Her most telling quote: “If they are desperate enough they will usually find something”.

Dr. Hinkle also wrote a highly lucid paper on the subject in 2000:

http://www.ent.uga.edu/pubs/delusory.pdf

Scratching may produce papular eruptions. Any
repeated skin irritation produces a friction blister.
Repeated rubbing of an area often produces a bleb
(small blister) which, when ruptured, yields an open
sore that may become infected. Once the sore
begins oozing plasma and a scab forms, hairs and
cloth fibers become entrapped in the sticky fluid.
These flecks are dislodged and called mites or
insects because they look like they have “antennae”
and “legs” (Fig. 2). Hair follicles often are pulled
out; the follicle accompanied by the associated
sebaceous gland looks like a worm.

August 23, 2006 by Mick West Delusions Science

Coming Attractions

After the Primetime: Medical Mysteries show on ABC, there was a great flurry of activity in the Morgellons world, then everything went quiet. Is Morgellons losing favor with the media? Here’s a run-down of current and upcoming goings-on in the world of “Morgellons.”

The Morgellons Research Foundation lost half its board members and its only scientist in a dispute over accounting and the leadership style of Mary Leitao. The three primary members of the MRF remain: Leitao, Doug Buckner and Ken Cowles. William Harvey, a big Lyme fan, steps in as new chairman. Will the MRF be able to recover from this schism? So far nothing has been heard from them, other than the Stalinesque purging of their web site of all mention of the former members.

The former MRF members formed the New Morgellons Order. This unfortunately named organization quickly lived up to its name by appearing on the Jeff Rense radio show, which normally features UFOs, Chemtrails, Anti-Zionism, New World Order and other conspiracy theories. Can the NMO be taken seriously? Will the upcoming two day Morgellons Festival help?

LymeBusters message board, closely affiliated with the MRF, forbids all mention of the MFR/NMO split. Anyone who even brings it up is banned, and all their posts are deleted. Discussion proceeds at a reduced pace, with Lysol Toilet Cleaner the current popular “cure.” Can Lymebusters continue under the oppression of censorship?

George Schwartz says on August 13th: “We have developed effective treatment for the “Morgellons” condition and have isolated the thread-forming stage of the organism. This will be presented at an intl meeting and there will be a monograph and CD of the presentation within two weeks. After that time, our group will be free to speak about our treatments and discoveries. With all best wishes. GR Schwartz MD“. Schwartz recently had his license revoked for illegally percribing narcotics. His web site claims to treat opiate (heroin) addiction with a 100% success rate, as well as making other dubious medical claims including his last Morgellons theory that Morgellons comes from bottled water from France. I await his monograph with interest.

The Union Square Medical Associates claims to be treating “hundreds” of Morgellons patients. USMA is where Dr. Raphael Stricker and Nurse Practicioner Ginger Savely work (both are members of the MRF). For the past eight years the USMA web site has focused on peddling Viagra and weight loss drugs, as well as a number of unusual therapies. Why does it not advertise the Morgellons treatments? Do they think it’s just Lyme? Someone from their office said “you really should keep your mouth shut, because in the not too distant future, you will be sticking your foot in your mouth.” I await this with interest.

Professor Randy Wymore breaks with the MRF. Wymore has been the reason Morgellons has been taken seriously by the mainstream press, and his disassociation with the MRF is a blow to their credibility. Wymore wants to continue his research, but his startup money will run out soon, and results so far have been inconclusive. Will OSU fund any more research? Will Wymore continue?

The CDC has formed a task force to see if Morgellons is a distinct disease. Since the CDC aims to nip new diseases in the bud, you would think they would make a determination fairly soon (if there IS a disease, if there is not, it might take longer). The involvement of the CDC has been a big press talking point, and their initial report will be very interesting.

August 17, 2006 by Mick West Science

Mick West

Morgellons Money

Morgellons and Dermatologists

Whither Morgellons?

Doctors & Patients

Hystorical Context

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Nancy Hinkle on Delusory Parasitosis

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