WEDESDAY, Feb. 5, 2025 -- For patients with mild atopic dermatitis, haptic feedback may be used as a nonpharmacological intervention to reduce nocturnal scratching, according to a study published online Feb. 5 in JAMA Dermatology.

Albert F. Yang, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues conducted a single-arm, two-stage cohort study to examine the accuracy and efficacy of an artificial intelligence-enabled wearable sensor with closed-loop haptic feedback for reducing nocturnal scratch in patients with mild atopic dermatitis. Participants who self-reported moderate or severe scratching behaviors were enrolled. Haptic feedback, delivered by a wearable sensor mounted on the hand, was triggered on detection of nocturnal scratch by an artificial intelligence algorithm. Participants initially wore the sensor for sensing only for seven nights, followed by seven nights of wearing the sensor with haptic feedback activated.

Ten patients were included and contributed 104 sleep nights and 831 monitoring hours. None of the patients were lost to follow-up. The researchers found that when haptic feedback was activated in the second week, there was a significant 28 percent decrease in mean scratch events nightly (45.6 versus 32.8) and a significant 50 percent difference (15.8 versus 7.9 seconds) in mean scratch duration per hour of sleep opportunity, with no decrease in total sleep opportunity.

"This technology may serve as a standalone or, more likely, a supportive therapeutic device for decreasing scratching behavior in patients with mild AD who may not meet the criteria for systemic therapy or prefer to not use topical corticosteroids yet still report a high degree of scratching," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to Maruho Co., which partially funded the study and has patents pending; one author disclosed ties to AbbVie.