Psychological predictors of pruritus during mental stress

Abstract

Experimentally-induced mental stress activates the psychoneuroendocrine systems. The cutaneous (itch and flare) responses of human skin to intradermal injection of histamine remain despite this unaltered. Major interindividual differences, however, exist in both neurophysiological reactions and cutaneous reactivity. The individual skin responses are interrelated to the urinary adrenaline response pattern. Psychosomatic status and psychosocial factors were in this study observed to be good predictors of skin responsiveness assessed by a multivariate model. We suggest that future studies on stress and pruritus should take these aspects into consideration. Knowledge of individual characteristics and coping strategies might help us understand why some patients suffer form itching in response to stress while others do not.