• Posted January 2, 2025

Who Knew Talk Therapy Could Ease Symptoms of this Skin Problem?

Eczema can be maddening, causing thick, scaly patches of dry skin that itch like the devil.

There’s no cure for the skin condition, but a new study shows that self-guided talk therapy can help a person deal with the itching.

Online self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that teaches patients how to respond to their itching is as effective as psychologist-led therapy in reducing eczema symptoms, researchers reported recently in the journal JAMA Dermatology.

“Self-guided internet CBT proved to be an effective option for reducing symptoms and improving quality of life, while requiring fewer healthcare resources,” investigator Dorian Kern, a doctoral student at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in a news release from the institute.

Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches people how to respond to physical and mental health problems. In CBT, patients figure out which unhelpful behaviors or patterns of thinking are exacerbating their problems, and learn better ways to respond.

CBT typically involves a person hashing out their issues with a therapist, but in this case the therapy is delivered online via a computer program, researchers said.

A person guides their own eczema-related therapy, using the online program to teach themselves mindfulness and proper ways to respond to itching.

For example, scratching might feel good in the moment but can cause eczema to grow worse. CBT might help teach a person with eczema to use moisturizers and lubricating lotions to calm an itch, or to use meditation to make the itch less exasperating.

For the study, nearly 170 adults with eczema were randomly assigned to either use the online self-guided program or attend traditional CBT sessions guided by a psychologist. The treatments lasted for 12 weeks.

On average, patients used the self-guided program about 16 minutes on average per session, compared with 50 minutes with a psychologist, researchers said.

Nevertheless, they benefited about the same from the self-guided program, results show.

This could make effective eczema management more accessible to people, particularly those who don’t care for talk therapy, researchers said.

“This is an important development, not only for patients with atopic eczema, but also for other areas of dermatology and chronic diseases,” Kern concluded.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more about cognitive behavioral therapy.

SOURCE: Karolinska Institute, news release, Dec. 18, 2024