The link between Stress and Eczema

Not just in your head: Here’s how stress causes eczema flare-ups 

If your eczema gets worse when you’re stressed, you’re not imagining it. A new study explains what likely happens in the body.

• Research suggests that chronic stress can trigger eczema flare-ups, a common skin condition characterized by severe itching.
• The mechanisms by which stress causes eczema flare-ups have remained unknown, but now a study by Fudan University in Shanghai, China, has conducted a deep dive into the biological connections.
• It identified a specific network of neurons that, under stress, trigger an immune reaction in the skin that leads to eczema flare-ups.

Atopic dermatitis also known as eczema often involves persistent itchiness, sometimes severe, the development of roughened, scaly, or discoloured skin patches, and scratching too often or too hard can exacerbate symptoms and lead to further skin infections. There are several ways to manage eczema, including using barrier-repair moisturisers and taking medication such as anti-histamines or antibiotics, as prescribed on a case-by-case basis. There is currently no cure for eczema..

How stress worsens skin inflammation

“The most remarkable findings of our study reveal that psychological stress communicates with the skin through a specific ‘highway,’ wherein stress activates a distinct subset of skin-innervating sympathetic neurons that not only carry the signal but actively release the chemokine CCL11, which functions as a potent distress beacon to recruit eosinophils, demonstrating that these immune cells serve as the key ‘foot soldiers’ responsible for driving stress-induced exacerbation of atopic dermatitis.” Equally importantly, Evans noted, is that its findings suggest that “stress is not just a trigger — it is biologically wired into the skin’s immune response.”

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Written by Maria Cohut and fact checked by Jill Seladi-Schulman