TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Mental health and itch in burns patients: potential associations
JO  - Burns: journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries
A1  - McGarry, Sarah
A1  - Burrows, Sally
A1  - Ashoorian, Tanya
A1  - Pallathil, Trisha
A1  - Ong, Katherine
A1  - Edgar, Dale W.
A1  - Wood, Fiona
SP  - 763
EP  - 768
VL  - 42
IS  - 4
N2  - 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 0305-4179
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2016.01.010
ID  - ref1
ER  -