AUTHOR=Meijer Larissa L. , Schielen Zoë A. , van Ree Kim Y. , Dijkerman H. Chris 

TITLE=Affective Touch Reduces Electrically Induced Itch Experience

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.628020

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.628020

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Introduction:</bold> Itch is a common symptom in dermatologic and other diseases and can have a severe impact on quality of life and mental health. As a proportion of patients with itch-symptoms is resistant to commonly used anti-histamine treatments, development of new treatments is desirable. Past research on pain, itch and affective touch (i.e. slow, gentle stroking of the skin activating C-tactile fibers) revealed an inhibitory relationship between affective touch and pain and between pain and itch. Given the overlap in neural processing between these three sensory submodalities, a possible interaction between affective touch and itch might be expected. This study investigated whether there is a relationship between itch and affective touch, and if so, whether affective touch inhibits itch.</p><p><bold>Methodology:</bold> Itch was electrically induced with the use of electrodes that were placed at the ventral side of the wrist of 61 participants. A within-subject design was conducted with two conditions. An experimental -affective touch- condition (stroking the forearm with a soft brush at 3 cm/s) and a control -non-affective touch- condition (stroking the forearm with a soft brush at 18 cm/s). Touch was applied on the dorsal side of the forearm, the same arm as were the electrodes were placed. For each condition itch was induced for 20 min, with every 2 min a VAS-scale measurement of the level of experienced itch.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Both types of touch reduced the experienced itch compared to baseline (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01, partial η<sup>2</sup> = 0.67). However, affective touch had an additional significant relieving effect compared to non-affective touch (<italic>p</italic> = 0.03, partial η<sup>2</sup>= 0.08). The alleviation of itch started after 2 min of stroking and continued to increase up till 6 min, where after the relieving effect stabilized but still persisted.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> This finding suggest that affective touch, as with acute pain, has a relieving effect on electrically induced itch.</p>