Health providers induced iatrogenic delusions of infestation

Abstract

Patients that suffer from factitial dermatosis mutilate their skin, often lacking any consciousness of self-injury, attributing the resulting lesions to spontaneous development. The case hereby described shows how the health providers’ interventions led a patient from a baseline undiagnosed factitious disorder to frank delusions of infestation with Mycobacterium Kansasii, and a relentless search for antibiotic treatments. We highlight the need for educating health practitioners on the characteristics of psycho-cutaneous disorders.

Keywords:

• delusions of parasitosis
• delusions of infestation
• factitious dermatosis
• psychodermatology
• dermatology

Ethics and patient consent

Institutional approval was not required for this case report. As the patient has been lost to follow up, patient consent for publication of this case was not possible. The details have been sufficiently anonymized not to cause harm to the patient.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.