Health, Medical and Neuropsychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Exp Dermatol. 2019 Dec;28(12):1442-1447. doi: 10.1111/exd.13992. Epub 2019 Aug 13.
Itch is often regarded as unpleasant or bothersome and is accompanied by symptoms of distress and impairments in daily life. The biopsychosocial model of chronic itch describes how psychological factors can contribute to the improvement or exacerbation of chronic itch and related scratching behaviour. Recent research underlines the important role of cognitive-affective information processing, such as attention, affect and expectancies. This may not only play a role for acute itch states, but may particularly apply to the process of itch chronification, for example, due to the vicious cycle in which these factors shape the experience of itch. The present paper focuses on new insights into the relation between itch and the cognitive-affective factors of attention, affect and expectancies. These factors are thought to play a possible aggravating role in itch in the long term and have received increasing attention in the recent empirical literature on maintaining and exacerbating factors for chronic physical symptoms. Possible psychophysiological and neurobiological pathways regarding these factors are discussed, as well as possible intervention methods.
瘙痒通常被认为是不愉快或烦人的，伴有痛苦和日常生活障碍的症状。慢性瘙痒的生物心理社会模型描述了心理因素如何导致慢性瘙痒和相关搔抓行为的改善或恶化。最近的研究强调了认知情感信息处理的重要作用，如注意力、情感和期望。这不仅可能在急性瘙痒状态中发挥作用，而且可能特别适用于瘙痒慢性化的过程，例如，由于这些因素塑造了瘙痒的体验，形成了恶性循环。本文重点介绍了瘙痒与注意力、情感和期望的认知情感因素之间关系的新见解。这些因素被认为在长期内对瘙痒具有加重作用，并且在慢性躯体症状的维持和加重因素的最近实证文献中受到越来越多的关注。还讨论了这些因素的可能的心理生理学和神经生物学途径，以及可能的干预方法。
