Music legend Joni Mitchell, 80, made her Grammy debut at the awards ceremony on Sunday, taking home a gold trophy for Best Folk Album.
Recorded in 2022, the album was a surprise appearance from the musician who stepped away from the spotlight in 2015 after suffering a brain aneurysm.
But Ms. Mitchell, 80, has done just that revealed that she suffers from a ‘weird, incurable’ disease called Morgellons disease.
It causes ‘fibers of all colors stick out of my skin like mushrooms after a rain shower,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2010.
However, despite similar patient reports, US health authorities fail to recognize the syndrome and medical professionals often refer to it as a “delusional” disease.
Joni Mitchell revealed in a 2017 biography that she suffers from a mysterious illness called Morgellons disease
Ms. Mitchell made her Grammy debut at the awards ceremony on Sunday, taking home a gold trophy for Best Folk Album
Ms Mitchell said in 2010 that the disease causes ‘different colored fibers to stick out of my skin like mushrooms after a rain shower’
The condition has no known organic basis and is believed to be a psychiatric condition.
The disease, according to Mayo Clinic, is characterized by the belief that parasites or fibers are embedded under and emerge from a person’s skin.
People with Morgellons report feeling as if something is crawling or pricking their skin, and describe intense itching and sores.
Some healthcare providers classify the condition as a delusional contagion and prescribe antidepressants and antipsychotics to treat it, along with therapy and counseling.
Other providers attribute symptoms to skin cell infections.
The medical community at large says more research needs to be done on MD.
Symptoms of MD include rashes and sores that are extremely itchy, the feeling of crawling on or under the skin, the belief that fibers, threads or strings are under the skin, muscle and joint pain, depression and an inability to concentrate.
More than 14,000 people are estimated to be affected by the disease, according to Medical News Today.
a study said in 2018 in the journal Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology that the skin condition is characterized by the presence of multicolored filaments and fibers embedded in or protruding from the skin.
The above enlarged photo shows blue and white filaments embedded in the skin, from a 2018 study
The above enlarged photo shows blue filaments embedded in the skin from a 2018 study
A disease with these characteristics was first reported in the United States in 2002.
The study authors wrote: ‘Because individuals suffering from the disease may experience a crawling or stabbing sensation and sometimes believe they have an insect or parasite infestation, most physicians consider MD to be a purely delusional disorder.’
Research into the condition has led to mixed conclusions.
The 2018 study shows that some studies ignore the fact that some mental disorders can be the result of an underlying illness.
Furthermore, other experimental studies have shown that the skin condition may be a physiological response to an underlying infection.
In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched studied 115 people with Morgellons, which the agency calls “a declared dermatopathy.”
The study found that most of the fibers and filaments in the skin could be explained by patients repeatedly scratching the skin ulcers and the tissue fibers entering the skin – as opposed to fibers coming out of the skin.
Researchers also noted that the condition is most often reported by middle-aged white women and that the symptoms are very similar to those of delusions.
This is a mental disorder in which patients have the false belief that they are infected with parasites.
The study also estimated a prevalence of 3.65 MD cases per 100,000 people in the US.
No known cause of MD has been identified, but a 2015 cause has been identified study investigated the link between the skin condition and Lyme disease and found that 24 of 25 MD patients had the tick-borne disease.
A case from 2021 report described a 27-year-old white woman with a history of anxiety, bipolar disorder, and depression, who experienced symptoms associated with MD.
The woman went to the emergency department with skin sores and sores after spending time in a heavily wooded area.
The left photo shows a lesion on a patient’s hand and the right photo shows a lesion on a patient’s thigh from a 2021 case study
The above shows skin scrapings that revealed fibers and debris collected from several patient lesions from a 2021 case study
Doctors thought she was suffering from an allergic reaction and prescribed her Benadryl and steroid cream.
However, three days later she visited her GP, where she complained of a rash and said: ‘Worms were coming out of my body.’ She also reported seeing a black insect that had crawled out of one of her lesions.
She later identified the insect as a tick.
After several months of treatment, she continued to report multi-colored threads coming out of her ulcers, causing a stinging and burning sensation.
Referred to a dermatologist, she was given a two-week cycle of a powerful antibiotic, which led to significant improvement in her skin ulcers.
This has led healthcare providers to believe that antibiotics can be an effective treatment option for patients with suspected Morgellons.
However, because the disease is so misunderstood, there is no cure for it.