Can Bed Bugs Cause Anxiety?

Bed bugs, cockroaches, and spiders are the most fears creepy crawling pests that people across the United States complain about.  Spiders are scary because they run fast, can travel anyplace they please, vary in size, and some have a dangerous or even deadly bite that we humans must avoid!  Cockroaches are disgusting, filthy creatures that will contaminate everything that they touch.  They multiply like crazy, can live anywhere, eat anything, and can even survive for a week without their own head!  Bed bugs are frightening as well because they sneak into our homes and stay well hidden until they are hungry enough to slip into our beds while we are sleeping.  Those little vampires invade our precious sleeping hours by stabbing us with their mouthparts and sucking our blood.

Who wouldn’t get the heebie-jeebies’ when they think about these bugs?  Each of these types of insects and many others cause some people to have some level of anxiety, but bed bugs in particular tend to be the worst offender to the psyche.

According to a report published by MedPage Today on May 15, 2011, a small study was conducted on ten people who either had bed bugs in their home or believed that they had bed bugs in their home.  The results of the study were presented at the American Psychiatric Association meeting and are considered to be “preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal”.

The study revealed that bed bugs did indeed cause heightened levels of “anxiety, depression, and relapse of controlled bipolar disorder.”  Other people in the study were “diagnosed with monosymptomatic delusional disorder — imagining that one is crawling with pests, even though no infestation exists.”  Doctors should be on the lookout for “acute anxiety and mood disorders” when patients complain of bed bugs (either real or imagined).  Pest control professionals refer to the problem as “bed bugs psychosis”.  You may read the article here.