The Eppendorf Itch Questionnaire can be used by a patient to describe the features of a pruritic condition. The first part (Form 1) lists the emotional descriptors used by patients to characterize the clinical impact of the pruritus. The authors are from University Hospital Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany.
Emotional descriptors:
(1) painful
(2) pulsating
(3) throbbing
(4) prickling
(5) piercing
(6) hurting
(7) dragging
(8) ticking (I made this tickling in the implementation)
(9) biting
(10) stinging
(11) warm
(12) penetrating
(13) burning
(14) cold
(15) feels ant-like
(16) acute
(17) more when cold
(18) less when cold
(19) more when warm
(20) less when warm
(21) palpable
(22) dull
(23) soft
(24) sharp
(25) tingling
(26) comes in waves
(27) pointed
(28) sore
(29) high-pitched
(30) pinprick-like
(31) hot
(32) itching
(33) like sunburn
(34) pinching
(35) prickling
(36) stroking
(37) vibrating
(38) squeezing
(39) mosquito-bite like
(40) goes right through me
(41) unbearable
(42) annoying
(43) physical urge to scratch
(44) awful
(45) rumbling
(46) terrible
(47) cruel
(48) bothersome
(49) no room for other feelings
(50) torturing
(51) merciless (I am not sure how this is different from cruel)
(52) exciting
(53) inflaming
(54) excruciating
(55) numbing
(56) tormenting
(57) wearing
(58) unpleasant
(59) pleasurable
(60) disgusting
(61) confusing
(62) tiresome
(63) tiring (I am not sure how this is different from tiresome)
(64) pleasant
(65) restricting my life
(66) disturbing my sleep
(67) dreadful
(68) churning up
(69) bothering
(70) grim
(71) unmanageable
(72) I only feel the itch (all consuming)
(73) My only desire is no itch.
(74) stubborn
(75) frightful
(76) oppressive
(77) insistent
(78) severe (this would seem covered by the response range of none to extreme)
(79) uncontrollable
(80) compulsive
The responses on the questionnaire consist of a Likert scale from 0 to 4.
• The anchoring for the responses are "No" and "Yes".
• The responses could be temporal (never to always) or intensity (none to severe).
• In the implementation I made it a Likert scale from 0 to 5 and scaled none, minimal, mild, moderate, marked and extreme.
• A VAS scale would be an alternative representation.
Limitations:
• The 2 questions about becoming less on chilling or warming move in opposite direction to the other questions. I am not sure the best way of incorporating these, other than by splitting them off completely.
• Although this is a monumental list of descriptors, it appears somewhat unwieldy to include all of them on a questionnaire. Perhaps having a two part form is more appropriate - the first to inquire what 10 features are most bothersome, then rating those.
Specialty: Dermatology
ICD-10: ,
