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Contagious Itch, Disgust and Empathy in Patients and Medical Staff

NCT ID: NCT04557644

Last Updated: 2021-11-04

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

24 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2020-09-16

Study Completion Date

2021-10-31

Brief Summary

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This study is to assess the relationship between CI, disgust and empathy in medical staff treating patients with scabies, to differentiate the impact of visual and verbal stimuli contributing to CI and to assess information about CI, disgust and empathy in a family infested with scabies.

Detailed Description

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Itch is the commonest skin-related symptom, defined as a bodily sensation provoking the urge to scratch. The induction of itch and scratching by mere (audio-) visual stimuli such as pictures of insects on skin or video clips showing individuals scratching themselves, indicates that itch can be perceived in the absence of a pruritogenic somatosensory stimulus. This phenomenon is referred to as "contagious itch" (CI). CI may play a special role in the content of scabies both for the affected patients as well as the treating staff: It is a very common phenomenon that family members who are not infested by scabies themselves experience itch when watching their infested relatives scratching. The same is very frequently expressed by health care professionals being confronted with scabies patients. Two further important factors may be involved in the context of CI: disgust and empathy. Empathy is defined as a psychological concept that enables individuals to understand and share emotions of others. Disgust is an emotional response of revulsion to potentially contagious and/or harmful objects or subjects. This study is to assess the relationship between CI, disgust and empathy in medical staff treating patients with scabies, to differentiate the impact of visual and verbal stimuli contributing to CI and to assess information about CI, disgust and empathy in a family infested with scabies.

Conditions

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Contagious Itch

Keywords

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itch scabies ectoparasites post-scabetic itch disgust empathy

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

In this study both the staff and the infested family are to complete questionnaires addressing CI, disgust and empathy
Primary Study Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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medical staff treating patients with scabies

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

7-items-questionnaires addressing CI, disgust and empathy

Intervention Type OTHER

7-items-questionnaire including numerical rating scales (NRS) ranging from 0 (no itch/disgust/empathy) to 10 (worst itch/disgust/most empathy imaginable) to rate itch, disgust and empathy they experience when treating the infested families.

Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy.

Intervention Type OTHER

Empathy is additionally assessed by the Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) ,a 16-item tool.

family infested with scabies

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy.

Intervention Type OTHER

Empathy is additionally assessed by the Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) ,a 16-item tool.

10-items-questionnaire addressing previous dermatological conditions, intensity of itch

Intervention Type OTHER

10-items-questionnaire (completed by the hospitalised family) regarding demographic information (gender, age, profession), previous dermatological conditions, intensity of itch a.) on the first day of the hospitalisation, b.) when seeing the skin lesions of the other family members c.) when talking about the scabies/itch with the other family members, d.) when seeing other family members scratching themselves, and questions regarding their intensity of disgust of the scabies and empathy for the other family members (0-10 NRS).

ItchyQol-questionnaire composed of 22 items addressing itch-related symptoms, functions and emotions

Intervention Type OTHER

ItchyQol-questionnaire to assess the itch-related quality of life impairment. The ItchyQoL is composed of 22 items addressing itch-related symptoms, functions and emotions.

Interventions

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7-items-questionnaires addressing CI, disgust and empathy

7-items-questionnaire including numerical rating scales (NRS) ranging from 0 (no itch/disgust/empathy) to 10 (worst itch/disgust/most empathy imaginable) to rate itch, disgust and empathy they experience when treating the infested families.

Intervention Type OTHER

Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy.

Empathy is additionally assessed by the Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) ,a 16-item tool.

Intervention Type OTHER

10-items-questionnaire addressing previous dermatological conditions, intensity of itch

10-items-questionnaire (completed by the hospitalised family) regarding demographic information (gender, age, profession), previous dermatological conditions, intensity of itch a.) on the first day of the hospitalisation, b.) when seeing the skin lesions of the other family members c.) when talking about the scabies/itch with the other family members, d.) when seeing other family members scratching themselves, and questions regarding their intensity of disgust of the scabies and empathy for the other family members (0-10 NRS).

Intervention Type OTHER

ItchyQol-questionnaire composed of 22 items addressing itch-related symptoms, functions and emotions

ItchyQol-questionnaire to assess the itch-related quality of life impairment. The ItchyQoL is composed of 22 items addressing itch-related symptoms, functions and emotions.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* members of families (aged \>7 years) hospitalized in the Department of Dermatology with scabies
* staff (physicians, nurses, nurse aids aged \>16 years) involved in the treatment of these families
* Infestation of scabies in individual family members confirmed by two leading dermatologists of the University Hospital Basel by dermoscopy and/or skin scrapings.

Exclusion Criteria

\-
Minimum Eligible Age

7 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Simon Mueller, PD Dr. med.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Basel

Locations

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Department of Dermatology; University Hospital Basel

Basel, , Switzerland

Site Status

Countries

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Switzerland

Other Identifiers

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sp20Mueller; 2020-01089

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id