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What a great thread and a good read.
I cant say I have had those sort of experiences in my job.
I do have contact with people suffering from delusions of parasitism tho.
I work with insects, I do identification and we have a free service for biosecurity reasons.
Every now and then we get some one (usually coming off drugs) that believes they are being eaten by insects.
Its a very difficult job to handle because there are quite a few cases where there are real insects involved (itch mites ,bed bugs etc)
The bloody doctors often know these people are delusional, yet they find it easier to sent them to me.
I have gotten pretty good at handling them, telling them early on that I can only do something for them if I find insects, planting the idea there could be some other cause.
If I find no insects I have to check to see what medications they are on (refer them back to a Dr to check for drug reactions)
I remember one old lady that was really in a bad way, no one had helped her and she was right off her tree.
I persuaded her that its common to get skin reactions from some drugs (heart drugs are bad) so she went to a Dr that re-checked her medication and found there was a problem.
It was great when she rang me back after about two months to thank me for taking the time to explain . She was as good as gold.
I still get skin samples , bedding samples, dust samples thankfully only one poo sample sent to me to check for imaginary insects.
Drugs are bad MKAY
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