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Spray on skin improves psychosocial functioning in pediatric burns patients: a randomized controlled trial
Graham Martin1, Sarah Swannell, Julie Mill
1Department of Psychiatry, The University of Queensland, Australia.
Purpose:
Microskin is a sprayed on, computer color-matched, skin camouflage which can last for up to 5 days after application. It binds to the epidermis and the patient can sweat and swim with it on. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether Microskin produces psychosocial benefit in pediatric burns patients.
Procedure:
Twenty children with mature burn scars took part in the study and used Microskin for 5 weeks. Initially, 10 children were randomized to a treatment group while the remaining 10 became a wait-list group for 7 weeks. The wait-list group subsequently received Microskin for 5 weeks. Before and after using Microskin, children completed three psychosocial measures; the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Family Assessment Device-General Functioning scale (FAD-GF), and the Microskin Questionnaire (MQ-a questionnaire about their experience using Microskin developed specifically for this study). All children were followed up with the same measures 6 months after their completed use of Microskin.
Results:
After the 5-week Microskin trial there was improvement on all scales of the SDQ for the 10 children in the first treatment group but not for the wait-list group. After the wait-list group used Microskinfor 5 weeks they too improved on all scales. Combining the results for all 20 children from before to after using Microskin there was a statistically significant improvement in the SDQ Emotional Symptoms and Total Difficulties. There was also improved perception of family functioning after using Microskin. Six-month follow-up data showed continued psychosocial improvement. Overall, children felt more confident, happier, and enjoyed social outings more when they had Microskin on, with 95% intending to continue to use Microskin.
Conclusions:
Microskin improves psychosocial functioning in pediatric burn patients and is well-tolerated and acceptable. The small sample size precludes sophisticated statistical analyses and generalization of results. There is a need for a full scale randomized controlled study of Microskin with a larger sample size.
