Resting-state electroencephalographic characteristics in patients with atopic dermatitis accompanied by chronic pruritus

This study investigated resting-state EEG alterations in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and chronic pruritus and their associations with clinical symptoms, aiming to provide insights into central neurophysiological mechanisms and identify candidate biomarkers. This case-control cross-sectional study recruited AD patients and matched healthy controls (HCs). All underwent eyes-closed resting-state EEG and clinical assessments.

Frequency features and power spectral density were compared using t-tests. Functional connectivity was assessed using network-based statistics, and entropy measures using permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Spearman correlations examined relationships between EEG indices and clinical scores.

The Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) procedure was additionally applied to account for multiple comparisons. Thirty-seven AD patients and 38 HCs were included. Nominally significant between-group differences in right-hemispheric peak and mean frequencies across the delta and low-frequency beta bands did not survive FDR correction.

Global EEG power was reduced in the theta, alpha, and beta bands (all FDR-adjusted P