The 2012 CDC-sponsored study did not classify Morgellons as delusional infestation. It also did not identify a cause shared across the group. This audit follows the denominators and separates what the study measured from what later sources claimed.
Medical Research
The Stain That Would Settle It
Research criticism · Dermatopathology · Morgellons
Reactive Perforating Collagenosis and Morgellons share plug and collagen observations but diverge on anatomy and symptoms. An intact, elastic-stained lesion could distinguish their tissue routes.
In reactive perforating collagenosis, damaged collagen can be pushed out through skin—and a pathologist can see that route under the microscope. Some Morgellons lesions are described as cratered or plug-centered. Middelveen has sectioned attached callus material and reported follicular casts and comedo-like masses. Those observations justify testing whether some lesions fit the RPC or acquired perforating dermatosis pattern. They do not already establish that diagnosis.