Dismissed as Psychological

“patients’ symptoms are often dismissed as psychological by health care practitioners”
Morgellons Research Foundation web site

 

“Physical and neurological symptoms are often dismissed or ignored”
Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences Center for the Investigation of Morgellons Disease

The above statements are representative of something that is often repeated regarding Morgellons, in that the patients are somehow being ignored, or dismissed. Particularly that their symptoms are being dismissed as “psychological”.

This conjures up various scenarios, of various plausibility for each of the Morgellons symptoms:

Patient: Doctor, I’ve got this horrible itching sensation, it keeps me awake at night, it feels like bugs crawling under my skin.
Doctor: You’re just imagining it.

Patient: Doctor, I’ve got these nasty looking sores on my arms
Doctor: You’re just imagining them

Patient: Doctor, I feel tired all the time.
Doctor: You’re just imagining it.

Patient: Doctor, I found some fibers on my skin, some were in the sore I showed you.
Doctor: You’re just imagining it.

Patient: Doctor, I saw a cobalt blue fiber poking out of the scalp, I tried to pull it out, but it withdrew back into the scalp and reappeared a few moments later in another area
Doctor: Sounds unlikely.

Of these, only the last is something that is likely going to be “dismissed as psychological”. The “finding of fibers on the skin” is not going to be dismissed as psychological, since fibers are everywhere, and everyone has them on their skin.

The root symptoms for many people who identify as having Morgellons are itching and crawling sensations. This causes people to scratch and pick at their skin, hence producing sores. The itching causes sleep deprivation, which might lead to fatigue and confusion.

So, under what circumstances would a doctor dismiss itching as “purely psychological”? Suppose you went to the doctor, and told him: “Doctor, I’m itching really bad, feels like bugs crawling under my skin”. How quickly would the doctor say “you are just imagining it”?

Consider for a second all the causes of itching, if we go to http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/symptoms/itching_skin/causes.htm, you’ll see there are 646 disease that have itching as a symptom. Not only that, but there are 1742 medications that cause itching skin. Given this vast array of possible causes, obviously a doctor is not going to dismiss every report of itching as being “purely psychological”.

But here our patent said “it feels like bugs crawling under my skin”. Would a doctor automatically dismiss this? No. This sensation is generally either an actual infestation of bugs, like scabies, or it’s “formication“, which is a well known symptom of many physical conditions including diabetes and menopause.

So what would the doctor dismiss as purely psychological? Well, suppose the patient had actually said “I think I’ve got bugs crawling under my skin”. The doctor would look at their skin, and if there were no scabies they would explain that this is formication, and then go on to look for possible causes. At this stage there is no dismissing.

Suppose that no scabies are found, formication is explained, and the patient still continues to say “I believe I have bugs under my skin”, then at this stage, the doctor might begin to suspect that the patient is delusional.

So what is the doctor actually dismissing? They are dismissing the delusion as purely psychological. The thing that is psychological is the fixed false belief that their crawling and biting sensations are caused by parasites under their skin. This does not mean that the crawling and biting sensations are psychological.

That’s important, so I’m going to repeat it.

Just because a patient holds a false belief regarding the cause their itching, biting and crawling sensations, this does not mean their itching biting and crawling sensations are “purely psychological”. The only thing that is in any sense “purely psychological” is their false belief about the cause of those sensations.

If I have headaches, but I attribute those headaches to FBI mind control rays, then this does not mean that my headaches are purely psychological. It just means I hold a delusional belief about the cause of those headaches.

So, yes, delusions are psychological. If a patient thinks that living fibers are burrowing into his eyeballs, then that’s probably psychological. But even here, doctors do not “dismiss”. A delusion can be quite a serious problem. It’s hardly something to brush aside. But at the same time, it’s very difficult to discuss with the patient. For the patient, if you question their delusion, you are questioning the whole basis of their illness. To these patients, it might feel like you are “dismissing their symptoms as psychological”, when in fact you are simply noting that they have one delusional belief regarding their real physical symptoms.

The MRF and the OSU-CHS-CIMD exist to raise public awareness of Morgellons and to raise funds. So it suits their purposes to claim that patients are having their physical symptoms dismissed. But it’s ultimately disingenuous, as doctors do NOT dismiss physical symptoms. They don’t even dismiss psychological symptoms. But some patients hold delusional beliefs regarding the causes of their physical symptoms. They then claim that, since the doctor tried to explain that this was a delusion (and perhaps treat it), then their physical symptoms were being dismissed as psychological.

In reality, the only symptoms that were being “dismissed” as psychological, were the psychological symptoms.