# You ever had an itch so bad that you scratched so hard you bleed a little? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 30, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799 "2008-06-30T19:06:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/21 "2008-07-01T03:05:15Z")
Aren’t you supposed to spit up greenish liquid if you’re possessed? There’s your answer right there. (I don’t care if it’s fake, I need a shower _right now_. And all the lights on tonight. :eek: ) ---
**Author:** ![Ducktail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/43a26b/32.png) [@Ducktail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ducktail)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/22 "2008-07-01T06:23:21Z")
Yikes. True or not, the mental images accompanied by someone **scratching a hole in their freaking skull** make my problems with razor burn look like a walk in the park. Still, things in this story make me raise an eyebrow. It seems that for a while, injecting a local anesthetic into the site of the itch on this woman’s head and using anesthetic patches made it go away for a while. Why in the name of god did no one think to try this earlier? I’m no neurologist or psychiatrist, but trying for a local or topical anesthetic–the latter of which I’ve used for much more run-of-the-mill itching–would occur to me way before an OCD diagnosis, and certainly before it came to someone digging a hole in their cranium with their fingernails. Also, it seems to have only occurred to the patient to cut her fingernails short after the brain incident, various attempts at psychiatric treatment, and the neurological attempts at curing her. This, plus the keratin-versus-bone question, leaves me, well, scratching my head. (Sorry.) I agree with previous statements that something is a little fishy here. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/23 "2008-07-01T06:59:08Z")
I’m all for skepticism, but…this guy is an surgeon who writes for the New Yorker, and does interviews with the likes of NPR. You don’t think he or his people did any fact checking in this matter? Or are you all just assuming that the woman describing the green gunk and such is lying about how she came about having a hole in her head? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/24 "2008-07-01T07:18:21Z")
Great, now this is going to compete in my brain with the man who was turning into a tree, which I also learned about courtesy of Dopers who have nothing better to do with their time than find ways to gross out the rest of us. Of course, I would NEVER do anything so inconsiderate to my fellow Dopers, by for example providing a link to something gross like [the man who turned into a tree.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DStwXsmZ3OE) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/25 "2008-07-01T09:59:55Z")
The report of a “greenish liquid” makes me think she had an infection. An infection, such as an abscess, certainly eat a hole through bone. If she had such an infection, it ate through the skull bone, then she scratched off the tissue above the abscess then the result could be as described. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/26 "2008-07-01T10:23:07Z")
HEAD ON – Apply directly to forehead. HEAD ON – Apply directly to forehead. HEAD ON – Apply directly to forehead. Sorry, first thing that came to mind as a cure! ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/27 "2008-07-01T12:03:06Z")
[QUOTE=Broomstick] The report of a “greenish liquid” makes me think she had an infection. An infection, such as an abscess, certainly eat a hole through bone. If she had such an infection, it ate through the skull bone, then she scratched off the tissue above the abscess then the result could be as described. [/QUOTE] Of all the possible explanations, this one seems to make the most sense to me. I’m disappointed in the New Yorker for printing the story with such a vague “tell it for shock value” description. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/28 "2008-07-01T12:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=CairoCarol] Great, now this is going to compete in my brain with the man who was turning into a tree, which I also learned about courtesy of Dopers who have nothing better to do with their time than find ways to gross out the rest of us. Of course, I would NEVER do anything so inconsiderate to my fellow Dopers, by for example providing a link to something gross like [the man who turned into a tree.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DStwXsmZ3OE) [/QUOTE] The guy received free surgery to remove a lot of that from his hands and such, so he can at least do basic stuff for himself. He’s still messed up, but his life is a bit better for having the surgery. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/29 "2008-07-01T13:05:55Z")
[QUOTE=Broomstick] The report of a “greenish liquid” makes me think she had an infection. An infection, such as an abscess, certainly eat a hole through bone. If she had such an infection, it ate through the skull bone, then she scratched off the tissue above the abscess then the result could be as described. [/QUOTE] Ditto. I saw a thing on TV or somewhere of a skull with a hole in it. The guy’s tooth was so rotten that it ate a hole through his bone. I still have a hard time understanding how a bad infection would feel like an itch rather than pain. The brain might not feel it, but the bone would (I would think). ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/30 "2008-07-01T14:53:43Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] I still have a hard time understanding how a bad infection would feel like an itch rather than pain. The brain might not feel it, but the bone would (I would think). [/QUOTE] According to her/her doctors, she felt _nothing_ in the area except an itch. If it were you or I, we would be in pain, but her nerves were all shot from her shingles infection. At that point, it was mostly a psychosomatic thing. He brain thinks there is an itch, so she scratches it, and her brain knows that scratching makes an itch go away, so it stops telling her her head itches. She stops scratching, her brain goes back to telling her there’s an itch. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/31 "2008-07-01T15:03:54Z")
I took the article to imply that she in fact did have an open wound on her scalp for a considerable amount of time, which at some point became infected (there’s a reference to a silver-dollar size patch of scab somewhere). I’d think it’s possible for the infection to have eaten away at her bone, with her just… uh… ‘breaking through’ that night. Anyway, that was a pretty interesting and well-written article, I kept thinking of this [TED talk by Vilayanur Ramachandran](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html) while reading it, who later actually got referred to in the article. If you’ve got some twenty minutes to kill, it’s well worth watching. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/32 "2008-07-01T16:15:37Z")
Oh god oh god oh god _makes icky hands and runs around room_ Aaaagh! Aaaaagh! Aaagh! ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/33 "2008-07-01T19:18:53Z")
Fascinating article. I don’t know how she could have scratched through bone, but the abscess/eating through bone explanation certainly makes sense. I can attest to phantom itching originating in the brain. I have RLS (Restless Legs Syndrome) and the foot sensations are often centered in a specific spot in the middle of each foot. Sometimes, the sensation feels like the middle of the foot itches. Other times, as I’m attempting to go to sleep, it manifests as surface itching, on the top of the foot or on the ankle. Scratching and outright _clawing_ at the spot gives only momentary relief. Usually when this happens, I have to get up and run my foot under the bath tap, as hot as I can stand it; this short-circuits things long enough for me to fall asleep. Since I’ve started taking a dopamine agonist for the RLS, those itching sessions have completely stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Ducktail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/43a26b/32.png) [@Ducktail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ducktail)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2008, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799/34 "2008-07-02T06:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies] I’m all for skepticism, but…this guy is an surgeon who writes for the New Yorker, and does interviews with the likes of NPR. You don’t think he or his people did any fact checking in this matter? Or are you all just assuming that the woman describing the green gunk and such is lying about how she came about having a hole in her head? [/QUOTE] I’m figuring that key parts of the story were omitted for some reason. I’m not going to say that it was blatantly for sensationalism, but perhaps to make the story more readable or understandable to the average reader without a lot of medical jargon that would have provided more accuracy. Also, I agree with **Broomstick’s** idea that there was an infection at work here that weakened the bone or something similar. In a contest of strength between the thing that protects your brain and the sheets of keratin that give you some added oomph at the ends of your fingers, I’d definitely hope that the brain-protector would be better reinforced. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-ever-had-an-itch-so-bad-that-you-scratched-so-hard-you-bleed-a-little/454799.md?page=1)