The painful itch was so unbearable that I was given benzodiazepines to calm down the uncontrollable urge to scratch, in addition to oral antihistamines, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.
#HELLS ITCH HELP NOW SKIN#
Applying aloe-vera skin lotions further worsened the symptoms. I was in a frenzy state, irritable and restless, wringing on the floor, with an intense urge to scratch which made it even worse. The pain was so unbearable that I did not know what to do. It felt as if needles were stabbing deep into the epidermis. However, 3 days after the onset of the sunburn, triggered by a shower, the most intense itch developed that was more painful than anything I have experienced in my life. My self-management included immediately applying aloe-vera containing skin lotions, wearing loose clothing and staying hydrated. Not unexpectedly, severe erythema developed that the same evening in the sun-exposed areas, as is well described in the sunburn literature. As I was unfortunate enough to experience hell’s itch first-hand, I would like to describe this phenomenon in order to raise medical awareness.Ī Caucasian fair-skinned male in my 20s, I had a severe sunburn on the Galapagos Islands after falling asleep in the sun without sun protection during mid-day. A Scopus search yielded one unrelated Book Chapter. In comparison, a Google search yielded 158 000 results. However, a specific acute phenomenon related to sunburn called ‘hell’s itch’, also described as ‘suicide itch’, is often not mentioned in the scientific literature a PubMed search did not show any results. 2 Sunburns are caused by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays, and the degree of burn can vary from mild to severe depending on the skin type and the amount of sun exposure. 1 In a study in kite-surfers, 74% had at least one sunburn during the last 6 months. Sun damage is amongst the leading causes of skin problems in travellers.
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