Contagious Itch, Disgust and Empathy in Patients and Medical Staff

Sponsor

University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT04557644

Collaborator

(none)

Enrollment

Location

Arms

13.5

Actual Duration (Months)

1.8

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

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.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Contagious Itch	Other: 7-items-questionnaires addressing CI, disgust and 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	N/A

Detailed Description

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.

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Actual Enrollment :

24 participants

Allocation:

Non-Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Intervention Model Description:

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

Masking:

None (Open Label)

Primary Purpose:

Diagnostic

Official Title:

Contagious Itch, Disgust and Empathy in Patients and Medical Staff

Actual Study Start Date :

Sep 16, 2020

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Oct 31, 2021

Actual Study Completion Date :

Oct 31, 2021

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Active Comparator: medical staff treating patients with scabies	Other: 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. Other: Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy. Empathy is additionally assessed by the Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) ,a 16-item tool.
Active Comparator: family infested with scabies	Other: Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy. Empathy is additionally assessed by the Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) ,a 16-item tool. 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). 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.

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Active Comparator: medical staff treating patients with scabies

Other: 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.

Other: Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy.

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

Active Comparator: family infested with scabies

Other: Saarbrucken Personality questionnaire (SPQ) addressing empathy.

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

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).

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.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Intensity of emotion (CI, disgust and empathy) in medical staff treating patients with scabies [one point assessment at baseline]
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).
Intensity of emotion (CI, disgust and empathy) in family infested with scabies [one point assessment at baseline (first day of hospitalisation)]
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).
Empathy scored by Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) [one point assessment at baseline (first day of hospitalisation)]
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".

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

7 Years and Older

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

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.