U. S. health authorities announced Wednesday that a thorough investigation is to be conducted on an unexplained skin disease that some doctors contend is in fact a psychiatric condition.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that it would collaborate with the Armed Forces Pathology Institute and Kaiser Permanente to investigate a mysterious illness called Morgellons.

The CDC said its symptoms are skin lesions that do not heal, the presence of fibers and other foreign material under the skin, biting and crawling sensations and joint pain. Other symptoms are fatigue, memory loss, mental confusion and changes in vision.

Doctors do not agree on what to call this condition; some say it is a medical disease, others call it a psychiatric condition - delusional parasitosis. Some of the patients themselves believe it is infectious.

The Morgellons Research Foundation, formed in 2002, says there are more than 11,000 families in various countries with at least one person affected by the condition, according to Reuters.

The CDC fact sheet on Morgellons calls it “Unexplained Dermopathy” and notes that the cause of this condition is unknown and that the medical community has insufficient information to determine whether persons who identify themselves as having this condition have a common cause for their symptoms or share common risk factors.

The investigation could take up to a year, the CDC said, and will involve mostly patients in Northern California. The Bay Area has one of the largest concentrations of self-reported cases of the disease in the country, the San Francisco Gate notes on its website.

The study is to begin immediately as Kaiser Permanente contacts Northern California patients who have reported symptoms of Morgellons over the past 18 months. The research will be funded by the CDC.

Michele Pearson, a principal investigator with the agency, said: “The suffering and the impact of this condition on people's lives, whatever you want to label it, what they're experiencing is real. That's why this agency has decided to look into it in-depth.”

While the CDC does not agree yet that Morgellons is a medical condition, it does recognize that people reporting it are ill and need help. The clinical evaluation participants in the study will undergo is to include mental health examination, Pearson said.

SFGate.com cites Pearson as she explains that there have been over 1,200 calls to the CDC over the past year from people who believe they have Morgellons. In the meantime, doctors at Kaiser are increasingly confused and frustrated as they try to diagnose this mysterious disease with no known cause or treatment.

The Morgellons Research Foundation rejects the diagnosis of “delusional parasitosis.”