{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,26]],"date-time":"2026-01-26T20:03:33Z","timestamp":1769457813018,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":60,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,15]],"date-time":"2021-02-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1613347200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:p><jats:bold>Introduction:<\/jats:bold> Itch is a common symptom in dermatologic and other diseases and can have a severe impact on quality of life and mental health. As a proportion of patients with itch-symptoms is resistant to commonly used anti-histamine treatments, development of new treatments is desirable. Past research on pain, itch and affective touch (i.e. slow, gentle stroking of the skin activating C-tactile fibers) revealed an inhibitory relationship between affective touch and pain and between pain and itch. Given the overlap in neural processing between these three sensory submodalities, a possible interaction between affective touch and itch might be expected. This study investigated whether there is a relationship between itch and affective touch, and if so, whether affective touch inhibits itch.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Methodology:<\/jats:bold> Itch was electrically induced with the use of electrodes that were placed at the ventral side of the wrist of 61 participants. A within-subject design was conducted with two conditions. An experimental -affective touch- condition (stroking the forearm with a soft brush at 3 cm\/s) and a control -non-affective touch- condition (stroking the forearm with a soft brush at 18 cm\/s). Touch was applied on the dorsal side of the forearm, the same arm as were the electrodes were placed. For each condition itch was induced for 20 min, with every 2 min a VAS-scale measurement of the level of experienced itch.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Results:<\/jats:bold> Both types of touch reduced the experienced itch compared to baseline (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.01, partial \u03b7<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 0.67). However, affective touch had an additional significant relieving effect compared to non-affective touch (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.03, partial \u03b7<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>= 0.08). The alleviation of itch started after 2 min of stroking and continued to increase up till 6 min, where after the relieving effect stabilized but still persisted.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Conclusion:<\/jats:bold> This finding suggest that affective touch, as with acute pain, has a relieving effect on electrically induced itch.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2021.628020","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,15]],"date-time":"2021-02-15T07:29:21Z","timestamp":1613374161000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Affective Touch Reduces Electrically Induced Itch Experience"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Larissa L.","family":"Meijer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zo\u00eb A.","family":"Schielen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kim Y.","family":"van Ree","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"H. 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