Q My neurodermatitis has been thick and hardened in the same spot for years. Can it return to normal skin? Usually how long does treatment take?
A Once you stop scratching and the itching subsides, the thickened skin also gradually softens over time. Itching usually starts to decrease within a few weeks, and recovery requires steady management of around 3 months in proportion to how thickly it has hardened.
Detailed Answer
Neurodermatitis gradually improves once the itch-scratch vicious cycle is broken. When the itching decreases and you stop scratching, the thick, rough skin slowly softens and the pigmentation fades. However, long-entrenched lichenification does not resolve overnight; itching usually begins to decrease within a few weeks, and with steady management for two to three months or more depending on the degree of thickening, you can expect stable skin.
Korean Medicine Clinic Perspective
In Dongjedang's actual skin patient cases, there was a person whose back of the neck had become leathery and thick from stress and insomnia and who scratched every night; through herbal medicine and acupuncture that descended the heat of the mind and moistened the parched skin (nourishing blood and moistening dryness, bohyeol-yunjo), over about 3 months the itching subsided and the skin became soft again. Beyond merely relieving symptoms, we regard creating stable skin that no longer needs to be scratched as the standard of recovery.
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