Background: Itch, and thereby the scratching behavior, is a common complaint in atopic dermatitis. Scratching damages the skin, which in turn worsens the itch. This itch-scratch cycle perpetuates the skin condition and has a major impact on the patient's quality of life. In addition to pharmacological treatment, psychological interventions show promising results in reducing scratching behavior.
Objectives: To investigate the effect of treatment according the EMDR treatment protocol for urge on scratching behavior of atopic dermatitis patients in a controlled study.
Methods: This study applies a multiple baseline across subjects design. Six patients were randomly allocated to different baseline lengths and all of them started registration of scratching behavior at the same day, using a mobile phone application. Nocturnal scratching was registered by a smart watch application. The total study duration was 46 days and was equal for all patients. Treatment consisted of two sessions using the EMDR treatment protocol for urge. Furthermore, standardized measures were used to assess disease activity, quality of life, and self-control. The nonoverlap of all pairs effect size was calculated for the daily measure data.
Results: One patient dropped out. Visual inspection suggests that the scratching behavior decreased over time in all patients. Furthermore, a moderate effect size of the treatment is found. During the baseline phase, scratching behavior fluctuated considerably and showed a slight negative trend. Outcomes of disease activity decreased over time and patients' self-control and quality of life improved after treatment. Nocturnal scratching behavior did not change after the intervention.
Conclusion: The results of the visual analysis of day time scratching behavior, disease activity, quality of life, and self-control seem promising. These findings pave the way for future research into the effect of the new intervention on other skin conditions suffering from scratching behavior, such as prurigo nodularis.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2023.1101935 | DOI Listing |
Chem Rev
January 2025
Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, United States.
Cells contain thousands of different lipids. Their rapid and redundant metabolism, dynamic movement, and many interactions with other biomolecules have justly earned lipids a reputation as a vexing class of molecules to understand. Further, as the cell's hydrophobic metabolites, lipids assemble into supramolecular structures─most commonly bilayers, or membranes─from which they carry out myriad biological functions.
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January 2025
Department of Materials Science, National Engineering Lab for TFT-LCD Materials and Technologies, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Tactile sensation and recognition in the human brain are indispensable for interaction between the human body and the surrounding environment. It is quite significant for intelligent robots to simulate human perception and decision-making functions in a more human-like way to perform complex tasks. A combination of tactile piezoelectric sensors with neuromorphic transistors provides an alternative way to achieve perception and cognition functions for intelligent robots in human-machine interaction scenarios.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Cancer
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Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China.
Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is commonly occurred among males worldwide and its prognosis could be influenced by biochemical recurrence (BCR). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are functional regulators in carcinogenesis, and miR-221-3p was reported as one of the significant candidates deregulated in PCa. However, its regulatory pattern in PCa BCR across literature reports was not consistent, and the targets and mechanisms in PCa malignant transition and BCR are less explored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroscience
January 2025
Center for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560012, India. Electronic address:
Pain and itch are unpleasant and distinct sensations that give rise to behaviors such as reflexive withdrawal and scratching in humans and mice. Interestingly, it has been observed that pain modulate itch through the neural circuits housed in the brain and spinal cord. However, we are yet to fully understand the identities of, and mechanisms by which specific neural circuits mediate pain-induced modulation of itch.
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