It starts with an itch
Imagine an itch so terrible it takes over your whole life. Or your brain.
Dr. Atul Gawande of Brigham and Women's Hospital ponders the mysteries of itch and other sensations, writing in the current New Yorker about pain, its perception, and what might be an entirely different order of sensation. He queries dermatologist Dr. Jeffrey Bernhard of University of Massachusetts Medical School and neurologist Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander of Massachusetts General Hospital about a puzzling case that nearly destroyed a woman's life.
"We now have the nerve map for itching, as we do for other sensations," Gawande writes. "But a deeper puzzle remains: how much of our sensations and experiences do nerves really explain?"
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blogger
Elizabeth Cooney is a former
health reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, where she also was a
business reporter and an editor. Earlier in her career, she edited medical
books and journals at Little, Brown, and worked for Boston magazine.Boston Globe Health and Science staff:
- Gideon Gil, Health and Science Editor
- Ishani Ganguli, Short White Coat blogger
Hello,
Could you share some information on what treatment was used for the woman with the itch? My Mother has been suffering for YEARS with an itch that can't be controlled.
Thanks!
Cindy