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Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Antipsychotics | Case report

Delusional parasitosis in dementia with Lewy bodies: a case report

Authors: Sho Ochiai, Hiroko Sugawara, Yusuke Kajio, Hibiki Tanaka, Tomohisa Ishikawa, Ryuji Fukuhara, Tadashi Jono, Mamoru Hashimoto

Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is characterized by fluctuating cognitive impairments, recurrent visual hallucinations, the motor symptoms of parkinsonism and REM sleep behavior disorder. Various neuropsychiatric symptoms including hallucination and delusions occur frequently; however, delusional parasitosis is rare in DLB. Here, we report a case of DLB patient with delusional parasitosis.

Case presentation

The patient was an 89-year-old woman. At the age of 88, she began to complain her oral cenesthopathy, and developed cognitive decline, delusional parasitosis and parkinsonism. As a result of examination, she was diagnosed as DLB and treated with combination of donepezil 5 mg/day and aripiprazole 1.5 mg/day, and her complaint was disappeared.

Conclusions

Further studies are needed to investigate the association between delusional parasitosis and underlying pathophysiology of DLB, and the utility of antipsychotics for delusional parasitosis in DLB has to be examined through more cases.
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Metadata
Title
Delusional parasitosis in dementia with Lewy bodies: a case report
Authors
Sho Ochiai
Hiroko Sugawara
Yusuke Kajio
Hibiki Tanaka
Tomohisa Ishikawa
Ryuji Fukuhara
Tadashi Jono
Mamoru Hashimoto
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Annals of General Psychiatry / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1744-859X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-019-0253-3

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