# What's up with Morgellons Disease ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602 "2006-05-13T04:44:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/1 "2006-05-13T04:44:46Z")
I wasn’t sure whether to place this in GQ or GD or even IMHO. But, either way, I’m looking to solicit the opinions of people far more knowledgable than I am on this subject. There’s an alleged awfully strange disease, called Morgellons, going around in South Texas, wherein the victims claim to be sweating black tar and to have thread-like fibers growing out of their skin. For reading: News article: [http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051106.morgellans.KENS.32030524.html](http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051106.morgellans.KENS.32030524.html) Website: [http://www.morgellons.org/](http://www.morgellons.org/) My gut feeling is that the disease is a fake for the most part; people get scrapes or sores and fibers from clothing get stuck to those cuts and create the appearance of “growing outward”. Of course, dirty wounds in turn take longer to heal. Plus, pictures of active lesions (as opposed to isolated fibers) and black tar sweat are quite rare. :dubious: However, there are such strong feelings on this, I won’t close my mind to this. My GD question is: Nearly all of the pictures on the website are those of extreme close-ups of the fibers. Are the photographs consistent with those of textile fibers? Second, the website claims here [http://www.morgellons.org/symptoms.html](http://www.morgellons.org/symptoms.html) , if I am reading it correctly, that the fibers aren’t textile in origin because they glow under a blacklight. Doesn’t laundry detergent do the exact same thing? Third, assuming that the empirical information presented on the website is true (e.g., the photographs haven’t been Photoshopped) is there anything that would point to Morgellons being a real disease, or delusional parasitosis? This last question is obviously quite subjective and might be IMHO or GD matter. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/2 "2006-05-13T04:57:20Z")
I am not able to answer the interesting questions you pose (indeed, I was not even aware of the entity). I am struck, though, by the results one gets on searching “PubMed” for Morgellons Disease - exactly [one cite](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed). Never in thirty years have I come across a condition or disease with only one PubMed citation. Interesting! ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/3 "2006-05-13T04:59:03Z")
Reminds me of [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=325168&highlight=thread+parasite) thread. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/4 "2006-05-13T05:00:21Z")
Bizarre! It’s also the first time I can’t get the PubMed link to work. So, [here’s one](http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/adis/derm/2006/00000007/00000001/art00001) that will. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/5 "2006-05-13T11:59:43Z")
Interesting. That PubMed abstract claims it’s been around 300 years, and the “fibers” pictures from that Ever Hopeful’s website resemble those on the website. Very mysterious. One of the main arguments in favor of this disease being real is that over one-thirds of the people registered on the Mollegons website are nurses, and the next biggest demographic are teachers. Bumping for more opinions… ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/6 "2006-05-13T17:40:13Z")
> [@dre2xl](#): > > One of the main arguments in favor of this disease being real is that over one-thirds of the people registered on the Mollegons website are nurses, … Actually, and meaning no disrepect to nurses, the existence of a large number of nurses with a “disease” is also consistent with it being factitious. The best examples of this are the disproportionate number of nurses (and other health care workers) with [self-induced hypoglycemia\*](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=3277509&query_hl=8&itool=pubmed_docsum) and [self-induced anemia\*](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9577646&dopt=Citation). \*there are other, better references, but I can’t access them through the web. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/7 "2006-05-13T18:41:15Z")
> [@dre2xl](#): > > Interesting. That PubMed abstract claims it’s been around 300 years, and the “fibers” pictures from that Ever Hopeful’s website resemble those on the website. Very mysterious. One of the main arguments in favor of this disease being real is that over one-thirds of the people registered on the Mollegons website are nurses, and the next biggest demographic are teachers. > > Bumping for more opinions… Actually, (apparently in review Karl Gauss has already addressed this) I always thought that nurses and other health care workers were among the most likely candidates for (incorrectly) self diagnosed diseases. If anything the preponderance of nurses and teachers in the affected cohort increases the likelihood it’s more a psychological than a physical issue. Interesting note here from NEJOM [Mass Psychogenic Illness Attributed to Toxic Exposure at a High School](http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/342/2/96) And here [THE MYSTERIOUS RIVERSIDE HOSPITAL FUME-EMITTING-LADY STORY](http://groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.urban/browse_frm/thread/1d4378240e617839/399be1ff7a28442c?lnk=st&q=emergency+room+female+insecticide+hysteria&rnum=1&hl=en#399be1ff7a28442c) ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/8 "2006-05-13T19:46:17Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Actually, and meaning no disrepect to nurses, the existence of a large number of nurses with a “disease” is also consistent with it being factitious. Then how might one explain these fibers emerging from inflamed skin sites? No one has been able to connect the fibers to clothing or other likely sources, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/9 "2006-05-13T20:00:07Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Actually, and meaning no disrepect to nurses, the existence of a large number of nurses with a “disease” is also consistent with it being factitious. The best examples of this are the disproportionate number of nurses (and other health care workers) with [self-induced hypoglycemia\*](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=3277509&query_hl=8&itool=pubmed_docsum) and [self-induced anemia\*](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9577646&dopt=Citation). > > \*there are other, better references, but I can’t access them through the web. Amazing. I would never have guessed this to be true of professions. In the school I went to, nurses had to take tons of science & chemistry classes and labs. One would think they’d have a better sense of rigor, and plenty of cynicism built up from seeing patients making a big deal of minor ailments. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Stilettos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Red\_Stilettos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Stilettos)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/10 "2006-05-13T20:10:42Z")
It disturbs me that this has showed up in the popular press as an “infectious disease”. My guess is that this is a delusional paranoia that is fed by reports like those cited in the OP. Healthy, non-Morgellons people have not been subjected to the same scrutiny as the self-reported cases. I have a feeling that if the studies were appropriately controlled they would find _nothing_ of interest in the Morgellon’s cases. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/11 "2006-05-13T23:31:52Z")
I don’t believe anyone has linked to the [Wikipedia](http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:A50b8LORAewJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons+%22Randy+S.+Wymore%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=8) site yet for this. It has a pretty interesting overview I think. It’s almost certainly delusional paranoia. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-morgellons-disease/356602/12 "2006-05-14T22:00:37Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s almost certainly delusional paranoia. Yep, I agree. Thanks. I was hoping for a more detailed debunking of the photographs & claims on the website, but, I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with “they’re crazy”. 😃