@article{ref1,
title="Mental health and itch in burns patients: potential associations",
journal="Burns: journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries",
year="2016",
author="McGarry, Sarah and Burrows, Sally and Ashoorian, Tanya and Pallathil, Trisha and Ong, Katherine and Edgar, Dale W. and Wood, Fiona",
volume="42",
number="4",
pages="763-768",
abstract="The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between mental health and self-reported itch in patients with burns across a 6 month time period and to test the hypothesis that poorer mental health outcomes are associated with increased severity of itch. <br><br>METHOD: A quantitative study with three time points for data collection was conducted. Participants (232) completed assessments at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after burn injury. The Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS) was used to report itch and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) provided an assessment of mental health across time. Only data from the itch and mental health subscales were used in the analysis. To analyze the data a quantile regression model was used. <br><br>RESULTS: Mental health is significantly associated with itch after adjusting for variation in itch over time (p=0.001). The regression coefficient indicates that as mental health increases by one unit, itch decreases by 0.03. Of importance, the relationship remained significant after adjusting for total burn surface area (p<0.001). <br><br>CONCLUSION: These findings suggest there is a relationship between mental health and itch. Given the powerful impact itch can have on an individual's wellbeing health professionals can begin to further investigate itch from a bio-psychosocial perspective. Further research to investigate causal relationships between mental health and itch is important.<br><br>Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0305-4179",
doi="10.1016/j.burns.2016.01.010",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2016.01.010"
}