Dear Colleagues and Friends,

we are very proud to announce that the 3rd International Workshop for the Study of Itch will be held in Europe for the first time.

The venue for the congress is the romantic city of Heidelberg on September 25th to 27th 2005.

Those who participated in the previous meetings in Singapore 2001 and Toyama, Japan 2003 know how effective and important it is to update the rapidly increasing knowledge in this interesting and interdisciplinary field uniting experts from all over the world. Our focus will be to improve our future understanding and treatment of our patients suffering from pruritus.

The Scientific Committee of excellent experts demonstrates that we are working hard to create a programme integrating basic researchers from neurophysiology to pharmacology and clinicians from different specialities such as Dermatology, Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics.

We hope that this workshop will be an opportunity for basic researchers and clinicians to interact and socialize.

Welcome to Heidelberg 2005 !


The Local Organisers

Elke Weisshaar, Heidelberg
Martin Schmelz, Mannheim
Sonja Ständer, Münster
Thomas Mettang, Wiesbaden