Study Evaluating the Benefit of Music Therapy on Pruritus in Patients With Pruritic Dermatitis

Many clinical studies have shown the benefit of music therapy in various pathologies, including pain, and it is now established that the latter has a complementary therapeutic interest. Its most frequently identified indications are the fight against acute or chronic pains, the reduction of anxiety, depression and stress, as well as memory disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. The main modes of action of music therapy involve sensory, cognitive, psychological and behavioral processes that are also found in pruritus. Pruritus is defined as "an uncomfortable sensation causing the need to scratch. It has similarities with pain but also differences: relief by heat / cold, scratching / withdrawal behavior, localization on the skin, semi-mucous / ubiquitous ... etc. The pathophysiology also has similarities, pruritus is born at the dermal-epidermal junction at the level of specific cutaneous receptors then follows the classical pathways through a 1st neuron, then the dorsal horn of the spinal cord and a second neuron. At the cerebral level, there is no single center of pruritus but several motor and sensory areas involved. The similarities suggest that music therapy may have an interest in the management of chronic pruritus, especially since classical treatments (antihistamines, topical corticosteroids) have only partial efficacy in some dermatoses