10 Facts About Itch

Itch is a sensation that causes the desire or reflex to scratch.

Itch has resisted many attempts to be classified as any one type of sensory experience.

Itch has many similarities to pain, and while both are unpleasant sensory experiences, their behavioral response patterns are different.

Itch generates stimulus of a foreign object underneath or upon the skin and the urge to remove it.

Itch is likely to be more than a localized phenomenon in the place one scratches.

Itch originating in the skin is known as pruritoceptive, and can be induced by a variety of stimuli, including mechanical, chemical, thermal, and electrical stimulation.

Itch is never felt in muscle or joints, which strongly suggests that deep tissue probably does not contain itch signaling apparatuses.

Itch is often classified as that which is histamine mediated and nonhistaminergic.

Itch is readily abolished in skin areas treated with nociceptor excitotoxin capsaicin but remains unchanged in skin areas rendered touch insensitive by pretreatment with anti-inflammatory saponins.

Itch is associated with some symptoms of psychiatric disorders such as tactile hallucinations, delusions of parasitosis, or obsessive-compulsive disorders .