Referred Itch - Relationship Between Location of Original Itch and Referred Itch

Relationship Between Location of Original Itch and Referred Itch

The location of the reference point for each individual that experiences referred itch is well conserved and specific to each person, in that a certain location will elicit the phenomenon repeatedly for a given person while itches elsewhere may not. However, frequent and repetitive stimulation of the same original itch location can weaken the phenomenon, making the referred itch increasingly more discrete with each repeated trial. There is also no evidence of a relationship between the site of the original stimulus and that of the referred itch. Though the location of the referred itch may remain fairly constant and precise for a particular stimulus location on a single individual, there is no substantial evidence linking any two locations in a definite origin/referred location relationship. Thus, referral patterns are extremely variable and offer little to no indication of where a referred itch will occur if the location of the original itch is known. It should also be noted that the phenomenon is unidirectional. Consequently, scratching an itch in a location that has previously served as the point of a referred itch does not induce an itch in the person’s typical origination site.