Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Br J Dermatol. 2012 Aug;167(2):262-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2012.10933.x. Epub 2012 Jun 11.
Itch and pain are common symptoms in skin disease. It has been suggested that negative emotions may play a role in itch and pain. To date, however, the role of emotions has only been studied for pain in experimental studies, not yet for itch.
To investigate the effects of negative and positive emotions on the sensitivity to itch and pain.
Film fragments were used to induce a negative or positive emotional state in healthy women. Itch and pain were induced using the following somatosensory stimuli: electrical stimulation, histamine iontophoresis and the cold pressor test.
Results showed that the scores for itch and pain evoked by histamine and the cold pressor test, respectively, were significantly higher in the negative than in the positive emotion condition, whereas tolerance thresholds to electrical stimulation and the cold pressor test, and stimulus unpleasantness scores did not differ between the two conditions.
These findings for the first time indicate in an experimental design that emotions play a role in sensitivity to somatosensory sensations of both itch and pain.
瘙痒和疼痛是皮肤病的常见症状。有研究表明，负面情绪可能在瘙痒和疼痛中起作用。然而，到目前为止，情绪的作用仅在实验研究中对疼痛进行了研究，而对瘙痒尚未进行研究。
探讨负性和正性情绪对瘙痒和疼痛敏感性的影响。
使用电影片段诱导健康女性产生负性或正性情绪。采用以下躯体感觉刺激来诱发瘙痒和疼痛：电刺激、组胺离子电渗和冷加压试验。
结果显示，与正性情绪条件相比，组胺和冷加压试验诱发的瘙痒和疼痛评分在负性情绪条件下显著升高，而电刺激和冷加压试验的耐受阈值以及刺激不愉快评分在两种条件下无差异。
这些发现首次在实验设计中表明，情绪在瘙痒和疼痛的躯体感觉敏感性中起作用。
