Delusional parasitosis in dementia with Lewy bodies: a case report

• Main Authors: Sho Ochiai, Hiroko Sugawara, Yusuke Kajio, Hibiki Tanaka, Tomohisa Ishikawa, Ryuji Fukuhara, Tadashi Jono, Mamoru Hashimoto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-12-01
• Series: Annals of General Psychiatry
• Subjects: DLB; Delusional parasitosis; Aripiprazole; Donepezil
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-019-0253-3

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.