An interventional study of 7-items-questionnaires addressing CI, disgust and empathy and Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy. in Contagious Itch, sponsored by University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland. Completed at 1 site in Switzerland. Open to participants aged 7 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-11-04.
Sponsored by University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland · Not applicable, Interventional, and Diagnostic
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.
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.
354 studies on the registry are indexed under Pruritus; 74 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 24 is below the median of 60 across 294 interventional studies indexed under Pruritus.
Browse Pruritus studies →University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland is the lead sponsor of 968 studies on the registry; 191 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
-
Other: 7-items-questionnaires addressing CI, disgust and empathy · Other: Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy.
Other: Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy. · Other: 10-items-questionnaire addressing previous dermatological conditions, intensity of itch · Other: ItchyQol-questionnaire composed of 22 items addressing itch-related symptoms, functions and emotions
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.
Empathy is additionally assessed by the Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) ,a 16-item tool.
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 to assess the itch-related quality of life impairment. The ItchyQoL is composed of 22 items addressing itch-related symptoms, functions and emotions.
Intensity of emotion (CI, disgust and empathy) in medical staff treating patients with scabies
Score in 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. The questionnaire (see Appendix) contains questions regarding demographic information (gender, age, profession), previous dermatological conditions, intensity of itch a.) before interacting with the patients, b.) when listening to the patients telling about their infestation with scabies, c.) when seeing the skin lesions, d.) when seeing patients scratching themselves, and questions regarding their intensity of disgust of the scabies and empathy for the families (0-10 NRS).
Time frame: one point assessment at baseline
Intensity of emotion (CI, disgust and empathy) in family infested with scabies
Score in 10-items-questionnaire addressing intensity of itch a.) on the first day of their 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 intensity of disgust of the scabies and intensity of empathy for the other family members (0-10 NRS).
Time frame: one point assessment at baseline (first day of hospitalisation)
Empathy scored by Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ)
The Saarbrucken personality questionnaire SPQ is the German version of the Interpersonality Reactivity Index (IRI) used for the measurement of empathy. The tool is a self-report answered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "Does not describe me well" to "Describes me very well".
Time frame: one point assessment at baseline (first day of hospitalisation)
This study is completed, as verified in Nov 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland