Document Detail


Heterotopic pruritic conditioning and itch--analogous to DNIC in pain?
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20226590     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Pain can be endogenously modulated by heterotopic noxious conditioning stimulation (HNCS) through a mechanism which is known as diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC). Since DNIC can be impaired in patients suffering from chronic pain, a comparable impaired itch inhibition may exist in patients suffering from chronic itch. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether heterotopic pruritic conditioning stimulation (HPCS) would display an impaired modulation of itch in patients suffering from chronic itch compared with healthy subjects. To this end, electrical stimuli were applied before and after histamine application (HPCS) to female patients with psoriasis and healthy female control subjects. Subjects reported the intensity of electrically evoked itch before and after HPCS. In order to replicate earlier findings for DNIC, electrically evoked pain was additionally investigated before and after cold stimulation (HNCS). As expected, the intensity of itch evoked by the electrical stimulus was significantly less after than before HPCS in healthy subjects, and the same was found for the intensity of electrically evoked pain after compared to before HNCS. Contrarily, in the patients levels of electrically evoked itch were significantly higher after than before HPCS, and no significant difference in pain intensity before and after HNCS was observed. In line with pain modulation, results suggest that there is a DNIC analogous mechanism for itch, i.e., diffuse pruritic inhibitory control (DPIC), which is impaired in patients with chronic itch, possibly due to a dysregulation of descending itch modulatory systems.
Authors:
Antoinette I M van Laarhoven; Floris W Kraaimaat; Oliver H Wilder-Smith; Peter C M van de Kerkhof; Andrea W M Evers
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article     Date:  2010-03-11
Journal Detail:
Title:  Pain     Volume:  149     ISSN:  1872-6623     ISO Abbreviation:  Pain     Publication Date:  2010 May 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-04-27     Completed Date:  2010-08-10     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7508686     Medline TA:  Pain     Country:  Netherlands    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  332-7     Citation Subset:  IM    
Copyright Information:
Copyright 2010 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. A.vanLaarhoven@mps.umcn.nl
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Aged
Central Nervous System / physiopathology
Chronic Disease
Conditioning (Psychology) / drug effects,  physiology*
Electric Stimulation / adverse effects
Female
Histamine / pharmacology
Histamine Agonists / pharmacology
Humans
Middle Aged
Neural Inhibition / drug effects,  physiology*
Neural Pathways / physiopathology
Nociceptors / drug effects,  physiology*
Pain / physiopathology
Pruritus / chemically induced,  physiopathology*
Psoriasis / physiopathology
Sensory Receptor Cells / drug effects,  physiology*
Skin / innervation,  physiopathology*
Young Adult
Chemical
Reg. No./Substance:
0/Histamine Agonists; 51-45-6/Histamine

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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