Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic relapsing inflammatory skin disease that is triggered by intense pruritus, impaired skin barrier function, and immune responses to allergenic substances. Break-through therapies for AD include molecular-targeted drugs and the effective management of severe symptoms of AD. However, patients with clinical improvements may continue scratching owing to the influence of psychological stress, which might lead to quick relapses of stressors and subsequent intensive scratching. New drugs may be ineffective because of such scratching behavior caused by stressors. Therefore, it may be useful to consider adjunctive treatment options that focus on external stressors as triggers of deterioration of AD. We hypothesized that improvement of psychological stress by relieving cervical muscle tension would reduce pruritus and atopic symptoms.

Methods: Overall, 21 patients with moderate-to-severe AD were treated to relieve cervical muscular tension using Spineliner SA201, which assists in osteopathic manipulative treatment. We assessed the subjective and objective symptoms of AD, cervical muscle tension, which was evaluated using cervical range of motion (ROM), and psychological burden. Only moisturizers were applied topically during the study period, and no topical corticosteroid therapy was used.

Results: Twenty patients who completed the treatment demonstrated improvement in the symptoms of AD: changes on the visual analog scale (VAS) for pruritus were -44.2%, Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) was -67.9%, thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) was -56.2%, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was -27.2%, sleep disturbance was -49.7%, and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) was -46.7%. Additionally, the cervical muscle tension improved significantly: changes in cervical ROM were 14.7%.

Conclusions: Release of cervical muscle tension may improve psychological stress and have an effect on moderate-to-severe AD.