Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 26, 2022; 10(9): 2858-2863
Published online Mar 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i9.2858
Delusional parasitosis as premotor symptom of parkinson’s disease: A case report
Miae Oh, Jong Woo Kim, Sang-Min Lee
Miae Oh, Jong Woo Kim, Sang-Min Lee, Department of Psychiatry, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul 02447, South Korea
Author contributions: Oh M reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Kim JW and Lee SM managed the patient and contributed to design the study and data interpretation; Lee SM were responsible for the revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sang-Min Lee, MD, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Kyungheedae-ro 23, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, South Korea. maumdoctor@gmail.com
Received: September 9, 2021
Peer-review started: September 9, 2021
First decision: December 9, 2021
Revised: December 16, 2021
Accepted: January 22, 2022
Article in press: January 22, 2022
Published online: March 26, 2022
Core Tip

Core Tip: Cases of delusional parasitosis during medication, such as dopamine agonists, in Parkinson’s disease have been reported. However, this case report shows that delusional parasitosis occurred before the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. In addition, unlike in other treatments for delusional disorders, the patient’s delusions improved quickly. After delusional parasitosis improved, the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease were observed, and Parkinson’s disease was diagnosed. The sudden onset of delusional parasitosis in elderly without a psychiatric history could be associated with the premotor or non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, an evaluation of Parkinson’s disease should be considered for elderly with delusional parasitosis.