Project Type
independent
Project Start Date
10/01/2012
Project End Date
09/30/2017
Target Population(s)
Adult burn survivors

The Burn National Database indicates a high prevalence of post-burn itch, initially affecting >90% of individuals and persisting for >40% of long-term burn survivors. Feedback from burn survivors at the 2006 State of the Science Conference supports these data. Itching affects quality of life with significant impact on sleep, activities of daily living, and psychosocial well-being. This prospective randomized trial utilizes our expertise in clinical management of pain and itch, and our experience with hypnosis as an innovative non-pharmacologic intervention. The control group will receive pharmacologic treatment using our established treatment algorithm for post-burn itch; the experimental group will undergo hypnosis as well as our standard treatment regimen. A power analysis indicates that we require a total of 30 subjects in each group. We will use patient-reported outcome measures (PROs) to test the effectiveness of the intervention with the primary endpoints focused on post-burn itch using the Itch Numerical Rating Scale and the multi-dimensional 5-D Itch Scale; we will quantify the amount of anti-itch medication used by subjects in each group. We anticipate based on our data regarding hypnosis as a treatment for acute pain that we will reduce both patient discomfort and medication use.