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A Chronic Itch: Burrowing Beneath the Skin

We have barely scratched the surface of itch science and what it indicates about our health.

Written byBrian S. Kim, MD
| 9 min read
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When John (patient name changed for privacy) visited our clinic in 2019, he had been driving for five hours straight. A retired widower, John had been looking forward to relaxing in his golden years. Instead, he had spent the past two years scratching himself day and night, unable to sleep and losing his mind. John tried everything; he visited eight physicians and underwent numerous lab tests. But at the end of it all, doctors were left scratching their heads, and John, his body.

When he read about our work on the internet, John sought our help right away. While describing his symptoms, John mentioned that his belly button was particularly itchy. Scabies like to hide in crevices such as the groin, armpits, and navel, so this was our big clue. We scraped his skin, observed it under a microscope, and there it was: a scabies mite that caused the unbearable ...

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Meet the Author

  • Brian S. Kim is Director of the Mark Lebwohl Center for Neuroinflammation and Sensation at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His laboratory focuses on understanding how the peripheral nervous system senses and shapes inflammation in tissues such as the skin, lung, and gut. He has >120 peer-reviewed publications, multiple NIH grants, designed pivotal clinical trials towards FDA-approved treatments, and is an inventor of itch technologies. 

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