Contagious Itch, Disgust and Empathy in a Family with Scabies and their Treating Medical Staff: An Exploratory Study.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Sutter M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9811301 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Contagious Itch, Disgust and Empathy in a Family with Scabies and their Treating Medical Staff: An Exploratory Study.
Sutter Mia M Kamber Marise M Navarini Alexander A Mueller Simon M SM
Acta dermato-venereologica 20221121
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Project description:BackgroundScabies is an intensely itchy parasitic infection of the skin caused by the Sarcoptes scabiei mite. It is a common public health problem with an estimated global prevalence of 300 million cases. Serious adverse effects have been reported for some drugs used to treat scabies.ObjectivesTo evaluate topical and systemic drugs for treating scabies.Search strategyIn February 2007, we searched the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register, CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2006, Issue 1), MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, and INDMED. In March 2007, we also searched the grey literature and sources for registered trials. We also checked the reference lists of retrieved studies.Selection criteriaRandomized controlled trials of drug treatments for scabies.Data collection and analysisTwo authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Results were presented as relative risks with 95% confidence intervals and data combined where appropriate.Main resultsTwenty small trials involving 2392 people were included. One trial was placebo controlled, 16 compared two or more drug treatments, two compared treatment regimens, and one compared different drug vehicles.Fewer treatment failures occurred by day seven with oral ivermectin in one small trial (55 participants). Topical permethrin appeared more effective than oral ivermectin (85 participants, 1 trial), topical crotamiton (194 participants, 2 trials), and topical lindane (753 participants, 5 trials). Permethrin also appeared more effective in reducing itch persistence than either crotamiton (94 participants, 1 trial) or lindane (490 participants, 2 trials). One small trial did not detect a difference between permethrin (a synthetic pyrethroid) and a natural pyrethrin-based topical treatment (40 participants). No significant difference was detected in the number of treatment failures between crotamiton and lindane (100 participants, 1 trial), lindane and sulfur (68 participants, 1 trial), benzyl benzoate and sulfur (158 participants, 1 trial), and benzyl benzoate and natural synergized pyrethrins (240 participants, 1 trial); all were topical treatments. No trials of malathion were identified. No serious adverse events were reported. A number of trials reported skin reactions in participants randomized to topical treatments. There were occasional reports of headache, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, and hypotension.Authors' conclusionsTopical permethrin appears to be the most effective treatment for scabies. Ivermectin appears to be an effective oral treatment. More research is needed on the effectiveness of malathion, particularly when compared to permethrin, and on the management of scabies in an institutional setting and at a community level.
| S-EPMC6532717 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe adoption of integrated curricula in medical schools has grown globally, emphasizing the need to understand academic medical staff satisfaction as a crucial factor influencing successful implementation.AimThis study aimed to assess satisfaction levels among academic medical staff with integrated medical curricula, identifying socio-demographic and work-related predictors of dissatisfaction.MethodsA cross-sectional, online multinational survey was conducted from December 2023 to April 2024 among 525 academic medical staff. A structured, self-reported questionnaire was used to assess satisfaction levels, demographic characteristics, and work-related factors. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including logistic regression analysis, to identify predictors of dissatisfaction.ResultsThe study revealed a low satisfaction rate (44.2%) among medical staff, with significant dissatisfaction influenced by nationality (Jordanian: OR = 7.74, and Egyptian: OR = 4.68), male gender (OR = 3.27), over ten years of teaching experience in integrated curricula (OR = 4.25), and employment in governmental universities (OR = 4.23). Dissatisfaction was particularly high with aspects such as the integration of basic and clinical sciences, assessment methods, and implementation schedules. Faculty from private universities demonstrated significantly higher satisfaction (65.1%) compared to those in governmental institutions (41.3%). Younger staff < 45 years reported higher satisfaction rates (50.9%) compared to their older counterparts ≥ 45 years (39.1%), reflecting greater adaptability to curriculum changes.ConclusionsThe findings highlight substantial dissatisfaction among academic medical staff with the design and implementation of integrated curricula, particularly in governmental institutions and among senior faculty. Institutions must address challenges in curriculum design, resource allocation, and faculty support to enhance satisfaction. Revisiting conventional curriculum components or adopting a hybrid approach may help balance innovation with faculty preferences, fostering a more conducive educational environment.
| S-EPMC11656885 | biostudies-literature
Project 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.
| S-EPMC10087404 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background Burnout is a growing problem among medical staff worldwide and empathy has been described as an essential competence to attenuate burnout. Previous studies found job satisfaction and job commitment were affected by the empathy and associated with burnout. This study explores the effect and mechanism of empathy on burnout on medical staff and investigates the mediating role of job satisfaction and job commitment in the relationship between empathy and burnout among medical staff. Methods Based on a self-administered questionnaire which included the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to measure burnout, 335 responses from medical staff in Tianjin City, China, yielded data on socio-demographic characteristics, empathy, burnout, job satisfaction and job commitment. Bivariate correlation and structured equation modeling (SEM) analyzed the relationships between empathy, job satisfaction, job commitment and burnout multi-group invariant analysis was used to evaluate whether the model was consistent across different type and level of hospitals and different job and employment type subgroups. Results A total of 202 (60.3%) medical staff had low level burnout, 115 (34.3%) staff had the moderate level and 18 (5.4%) staff had the high level burnout. The results of the SEM showed that empathy not only had a direct negative effect on burnout ( Conclusions Our results pointed out the important role that empathy plays in addressing burnout and revealed that managing job satisfaction and increasing the job commitment attenuated burnout. We recommend that the government should accelerate the reform of the resourcing of different hospital levels; facilitate hospital managers to implement additional training; and support hospitals to strengthen psychological testing and counseling to reduce medical staff burnout. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13405-4.
| S-EPMC9125814 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC6494415 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe pandemic of COVID-19 caused confusion in medical settings because of increased patient load, and caused many infections among medical staff which occurred through exposure to bio-particles discharged from patients. The risk of exposure became maximum at the examination of patients, particularly in the collection of respiratory specimens. Effective interventions to reduce the risk are needed.MethodsA one-person booth consisting of curtain walls, frames, and fan-HEPA filter-unit (FFU) was designed. Using the airstream from/to FFU, it has dual functions as a positive/negative pressure machine to prevent pathogens in patient's cough to reach the medical staff inside/outside the booth, respectively. The curtain walls and positioning of the patient and staff were aerodynamically optimized for the best control of the airstream.ResultsThe positive pressure booth is to isolate a staff inside to safely deal with a surge in the number of patients in situations like influenza pandemics. The negative pressure booth is to isolate a patient inside to protect a staff outside from dangerous contagious respiratory infectious diseases including COVID-19. A calculated airflow of the positive pressure machine efficiently pushed back bio-particles discharged from a person outside the booth. The bio-particles of a cough from a person inside the negative pressure booth was sucked into the FFU for filtration immediately after the discharge. The booth needed a short front curtain of a stair-cut shape, and a patient and a staff facing each other needed to be positioned at an angle 45° to the airstream for optimization of the airflow.ConclusionsThe booth named Barriflow® would prevent the bioparticles of a patient's cough to reach the medical staff due to an aerodynamically designed airstream from the FFU and curtains surrounding it. It could be applied to cases of not only COVID-19 or influenza but also of other dangerous, contagious respiratory diseases.
| S-EPMC7578461 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Anecdotal evidence suggests that 'contagious' itch occurs in daily life when we see other people itch and scratch. This phenomenon has not previously been studied systematically, and factors which can amplify itch perception were unknown.We investigated whether exposure to visual cues of itch can induce or intensify itch in healthy subjects and patients with atopic dermatitis (AD).Participants received histamine or a saline control delivered to the forearm and were asked to watch short video clips of people scratching. Spontaneous scratching induced by visual cues was monitored and analysed.Patients with AD reported a higher itch intensity and scratched more frequently while watching itch videos, even in the presence of mock itch stimuli.Human susceptibility to develop itch when exposed to visual cues is confirmed; it appears to be amplified in patients with AD. These findings suggest that interpersonal social cues can dramatically alter the subjective sensory experience of itch.
| S-EPMC3110738 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Scabies is an infestation of the skin caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei. In 2017, scabies was recognised by the World Health Organisation as a disease of public importance and was consequently added to the list of neglected tropical diseases. An estimated 200 million people currently have scabies worldwide. Scabies is endemic in many developing countries, with the highest prevalence being in hot, humid climates such as the Pacific and Latin American regions. Scabies causes a host immune response which is intensely itchy. Scratching of the lesions can lead to secondary bacterial infections of the skin, such as impetigo, most commonly caused by Streptococcus pyogenes or Staphylococcus aureus. This can have fatal consequences, such as septicaemia, glomerulonephritis, and rheumatic heart disease. Advances over the past 5 years indicate that mass drug administration is an effective strategy to treat scabies. This review will outline advances in the mite biology, epidemiological understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of scabies.
| S-EPMC8009191 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Several studies show that itch and scratching cannot only be induced by pruritogens like histamine or cowhage, but also by the presentation of certain (audio-) visual stimuli like pictures on crawling insects or videos showing other people scratching. This phenomenon is coined "Contagious itch" (CI). Due to the fact that CI is more profound in patients with the chronic itchy skin disease atopic dermatitis (AD), we believe that it is highly relevant to study brain processing of CI in this group. Knowledge on brain areas involved in CI in AD-patients can provide us with useful hints regarding non-invasive treatments that AD-patients could profit from when they are confronted with itch-inducing situations in daily life. Therefore, this study investigated the brain processing of CI in AD-patients. 11 AD-patients underwent fMRI scans during the presentation of an itch inducing experimental video (EV) and a non-itch inducing control video (CV). Perfusion based brain activity was measured using arterial spin labeling functional MRI. As expected, the EV compared to the CV led to an increase in itch and scratching (p < 0.05). CI led to a significant increase in brain activity in the supplementary motor area, left ventral striatum and right orbitofrontal cortex (threshold: p < 0.001; cluster size k > 50). Moreover, itch induced by watching the EV was by trend correlated with activity in memory-related regions including the temporal cortex and the (pre-) cuneus as well as the posterior operculum, a brain region involved in itch processing (threshold: p < 0.005; cluster size k > 50). These findings suggest that the fronto-striatal circuit, which is associated with the desire to scratch, might be a target region for non-invasive treatments in AD patients.
| S-EPMC5524890 | biostudies-other
Project description:Yawn contagion in humans has been proposed to be related to our capacity for empathy. It is presently unclear whether this capacity is uniquely human or shared with other primates, especially monkeys. Here, we show that in gelada baboons (Theropithecus gelada) yawning is contagious between individuals, especially those that are socially close, i.e., the contagiousness of yawning correlated with the level of grooming contact between individuals. This correlation persisted after controlling for the effect of spatial association. Thus, emotional proximity rather than spatial proximity best predicts yawn contagion. Adult females showed precise matching of different yawning types, which suggests a mirroring mechanism that activates shared representations. The present study also suggests that females have an enhanced sensitivity and emotional tuning toward companions. These findings are consistent with the view that contagious yawning reveals an emotional connection between individuals. This phenomenon, here demonstrated in monkeys, could be a building block for full-blown empathy.
| S-EPMC2780782 | biostudies-literature