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Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?

Contagious itch can be evoked by observing people scratching. Verbal suggestions about to‐be‐received itch can influence itch intensity, as shown by placebo research, but it is unknown whether this extends to contagious itch. The current study aimed to replicate prior findings that listening to scra...

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Autores principales: Meeuwis, Stefanie H., Skvortsova, Aleksandrina, van Laarhoven, Antoinette I. M., Holle, Henning, Evers, Andrea W. M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10087404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36048562
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/exd.14663
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author Meeuwis, Stefanie H.
Skvortsova, Aleksandrina
van Laarhoven, Antoinette I. M.
Holle, Henning
Evers, Andrea W. M.
author_facet Meeuwis, Stefanie H.
Skvortsova, Aleksandrina
van Laarhoven, Antoinette I. M.
Holle, Henning
Evers, Andrea W. M.
author_sort Meeuwis, Stefanie H.
collection PubMed
description Contagious itch can be evoked by observing people scratching. Verbal suggestions about to‐be‐received itch can influence itch intensity, as shown by placebo research, but it is unknown whether this extends to contagious itch. The current study aimed to replicate prior findings that listening to scratching and rubbing sounds elicits contagious itch, and to investigate whether suggestions can modulate this process. Healthy participants (n = 140) received positive or negative suggestions about itch in response to the sounds (aimed to decrease or increase expected itch, respectively), or no specific suggestions as a control. Participants listened to a number of audio fragments with scratching and rubbing sounds. The amount of expected itch as well as itch sensation after each audio fragment were measured by self‐report. Suggestions had no effect on the expected itch. Both rubbing and scratching sounds significantly elicited itch in all groups. Scratching sounds induced more itch than rubbing sounds exclusively in the control group. These findings indicate that short suggestions might be not effective enough to modify the expectations of people regarding contagious itch. Furthermore, suggestions modulate contagious itch to some degree, but not in the hypothesized direction. Potential similarities and differences in the neurobiological mechanisms of contagious itch and nocebo effects are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-100874042023-04-12 Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions? Meeuwis, Stefanie H. Skvortsova, Aleksandrina van Laarhoven, Antoinette I. M. Holle, Henning Evers, Andrea W. M. Exp Dermatol Research Articles Contagious itch can be evoked by observing people scratching. Verbal suggestions about to‐be‐received itch can influence itch intensity, as shown by placebo research, but it is unknown whether this extends to contagious itch. The current study aimed to replicate prior findings that listening to scratching and rubbing sounds elicits contagious itch, and to investigate whether suggestions can modulate this process. Healthy participants (n = 140) received positive or negative suggestions about itch in response to the sounds (aimed to decrease or increase expected itch, respectively), or no specific suggestions as a control. Participants listened to a number of audio fragments with scratching and rubbing sounds. The amount of expected itch as well as itch sensation after each audio fragment were measured by self‐report. Suggestions had no effect on the expected itch. Both rubbing and scratching sounds significantly elicited itch in all groups. Scratching sounds induced more itch than rubbing sounds exclusively in the control group. These findings indicate that short suggestions might be not effective enough to modify the expectations of people regarding contagious itch. Furthermore, suggestions modulate contagious itch to some degree, but not in the hypothesized direction. Potential similarities and differences in the neurobiological mechanisms of contagious itch and nocebo effects are discussed. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-09-01 2022-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10087404/ /pubmed/36048562 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/exd.14663 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Experimental Dermatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Meeuwis, Stefanie H.
Skvortsova, Aleksandrina
van Laarhoven, Antoinette I. M.
Holle, Henning
Evers, Andrea W. M.
Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?
title Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?
title_full Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?
title_fullStr Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?
title_full_unstemmed Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?
title_short Can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?
title_sort can contagious itch be affected by positive and negative suggestions?
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10087404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36048562
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/exd.14663
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